Oncology societies focus on improving geriatric oncology education

Abstract

For the first time at its annualmeeting this year, ASCO sponsored a geriatric oncology forum that was open to its general membership rather than to a small, invitation-only audience. A standingroom-only crowd of 180 attended “Designing Clinical Trials for Older Patients: Laboratory Science and Practical Applications.” “Obviously, we'll need a bigger roomnext year,” says Marilyn Raymond, ASCO's director of professional development. As interest in this burgeoning field continues to increase, oncology leaders are working to develop new tools to help providers improve their care to this growing population. This past summer, ASCO introduced a core curriculum for geriatric oncology on its ASCO Universitywebsite (available at: http://university.asco.org). The module, which offers Continuing Medical Education credit, includes 4 presentations on the topics of “Aging andCancer,” “Physiology of Aging,” “Assessment of the Older Cancer Patient,” and “Pharmacology and Aging.” The website also includes training modules that focus specifically on both breast cancer and prostate cancer in older patients. Additional disease-specific modules are expected to launch within a year. Meanwhile, the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) has been developing a special geriatric training program for its members. Its goal is to make the program available by the end of 2010. It will include an online course that will prepare trainers to deliver a Power Point curriculum to bedside clinicians in a variety of settings, including nursing homes and hospitals. “I see a need for it in every area that I touch,” says Mary Kate Eanniello, who runs the nurse educator cancer program at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut. The idea for the training program spun out of a meeting with the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at New York University College of Nursing in New York City, during which ONS members were asked to determine what they could do to support geriatric education through their specialty. “Oncology nurses look holistically at patients and are very interested in quality of life,” Eanniello says. “They are hungry for information about how to treat these patients differently and to give bedside care that will improve their quality of life.” Because older patients often have other physical problems and fewer reserves and because they may react differently from younger adults to various medications, nurses often must spend more time with them, she adds. “It's exciting to see ONS focused on infusing this into their organization,” Eanniello says. “You're kidding yourself if you don't think you need added knowledge about this population. I don't think there are many people who wouldn't benefit from hearing this content.”