Cancer and Aging; Preparing for Silver Tsunami

Abstract Growing number of older adults is one the most significant sociodemographic changes in the United States in the next few decades. Advancing age is associated with increased incidence of cancer and other age-related health conditions. It is common that older cancer patients have concurrent conditions and comorbidities that may affect treatment decisions, prognosis and overall survival. Assessment and care for older cancer patient is more complex than caring for younger patient. Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) is a useful method for assessing older patients with cancer. CGA is a multidisciplinary evaluation designed to assess and manage elderly patient's medical, psychosocial, and functional capabilities. In this paper we will review domains of CGA and their impact on older cancer patient's outcome

Breast cancer and aging: results of the U13 conference breast cancer panel

Breast cancer is predominantly a disease of older women, yet there is a knowledge gap due to the persisting misalignment between the age distribution of women with breast cancer and the age distribution of participants in clinical trials. The purpose of this report is to state the U13 conference breast cancer panel’s recommendations regarding therapeutic clinical trials that will fill gaps in knowledge regarding the care of older patients with breast cancer. The U13 conference was a collaboration between the Cancer and Aging Research Group and the National Institute on Aging and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Clinical trials should be developed for frail and vulnerable patients who would not enroll on the standard phase III trials, as well as efforts need to be made to increase enrollment of fit older patients on standard phase III trials. As a result of this conference, panel members are working with the NCI and cooperative groups to address these knowledge gaps. With the aging population and increasing incidence of breast cancer with age, it is essential to study the feasibility, toxicity, and efficacy of cancer therapy in this at-risk population

Evolving oncology care for older adults: Trends in telemedicine use after one year of caring for older adults with cancer during COVID-19

Challenges of receiving follow-up care with healthcare providers (HCP) existed before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic due to time constraints, appointments during working hours, commuting distances, patient physical limitations, costs, and transportation. Telemedicine was initiated before this pandemic to serve patients with chronic illnesses facing constraints that influence healthcare follow-up. [1–3] Telemedicine delivers health and health-related services via telecommunications and digital communication technologies. Telemedicine technologies commonly used are live video conferencing, mobile health apps, “store and forward” electronic transmission, and remote patient monitoring

The underreporting of phase III chemo-therapeutic clinical trial data of older patients with cancer: A systematic review

Purpose: Inspired by the American Society of Clinical Oncology's recommendations to strengthen the evidence base for older adults with cancer, the purpose of this systematic review is to identify the reporting of treatment efficacy and adverse events specific to older adults with cancer in Phase III chemo-therapeutic clinical trials. This review also investigates the frequency with which these data points were reported in the literature to identify gaps in reporting and opportunities to expand the knowledge base on clinical outcomes for older adults with cancer. Methods: Chemo-therapeutic clinical trial data published from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017 was reviewed. Manuscripts (n = 929) were identified based on keyword searches of EMBASE and PubMed. After removal of duplicates (n = 116) and articles that did not meet this study's inclusion criteria (n = 654), 159 articles were identified for review. Results: Reviewed papers were published in 36 different scientific journals and included twenty-five different cancer types. Of the 159 articles, 117 (73.6%) reported age-specific medians and 75 (47.2%) included stratifications of data by age. Treatment efficacy was reported in 96.2% of the articles with 39.9% reporting effectiveness of treatment by age. Reporting of adverse events was included in 84.9% of the articles with only 8.9% reporting these events stratified by age. Conclusion: Results suggest inadequate reporting of treatment efficacy and adverse events as well as basic descriptive statistics about the age distribution of study subjects. Conscious efforts are needed to address these deficiencies at every level of planning and conducting clinical trials as wells as reporting outcomes stratified by age. Ultimately, standardized reporting could lead to improved treatment decisions and outcomes for older adults with cancer

An overview of the PETS 2009 challenge

This paper describes the crowd image analysis challenge that forms part of the PETS 2009 workshop. The aim of this challenge is to use new or existing systems for i) crowd count and density estimation, ii) tracking of individual(s) within a crowd, and iii) detection of separate flows and specific crowd events, in a real-world environment. The dataset scenarios were filmed from multiple cameras and involve multiple actors

PETS2009: dataset and challenge

This paper describes the crowd image analysis challenge that forms part of the PETS 2009 workshop. The aim of this challenge is to use new or existing systems for i) crowd count and density estimation, ii) tracking of individual(s) within a crowd, and iii) detection of separate flows and specific crowd events, in a real-world environment. The dataset scenarios were filmed from multiple cameras and involve multiple actors