Home-based geriatric oncology care: A feasibility study.

Abstract

62 Background: The Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) improves the outcomes of older patients with cancer, and by identifying of geriatric impairments the CGA can guide the development of supportive interventions. However, the implementation of these interventions in a real-world setting can be burdensome for patients, particularly when additional visits are required in an often frail population. Therefore, our team developed a collaborative model for home-based delivery of CGA-guided interventions. Methods: We performed a retrospective review of community-dwelling patients aged ≥ 70 years with an active cancer diagnosis who were deemed to be frail by a CGA and who received home-based CGA-guided supportive interventions under a collaborative care model established by the geriatric oncology and the palliative home care teams at Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute between October 2020 and April 2022. The collaboration is based on multidisciplinary discussion of the CGA results / interventions and weekly rounds to discuss patient’s progress and emerging needs. Results: A total of 182 patients received a CGA during the study period, 54% (n = 99) were determined to be frail based on impairment in ≥ 7 geriatric domains. Among all eligible patients, 19 patients (19%) were included in the collaborative model. The median age of enrolled patients was 84 years (74-90), 12/19 (63%) had metastatic cancer, 7/19 (37%) received systemic treatment, and 8/19 (42%) received radiation. The average number of geriatric impairments per patients was 9.5 (7-12). Geriatric impairments addressed at home were skilled nursing (19/19), physical therapy (18/19), occupational therapy (12/19), speech-language-pathology (2/19), nutrition (5/19), or social worker (11/19) support at home. The average number of unplanned hospitalizations was 1.16 per patient (range 0-4), and the average unplanned emergency room visit was 0.89 per person (range 0-4) during study time. Transition to hospice occurred in 8/19 patients (42%), the median time to transition to hospice was 33.5 days (15-167). Conclusions: This study demonstrates the feasibility of a collaborative model for home-based geriatric oncology care in a real-world setting to help reduce the burden of care on patients and ensure patient-centered delivery of CGA-guided interventions. Findings underscore the need for future work to evaluate the impact of this novel geriatric oncology care model on patient outcomes.