An abnormal baseline geriatric 8 screening tool score strongly associates with increased long-term healthcare utilization in older patients with cancer

 A recent retrospective analysis conducted in the Department of General Medical Oncology at University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium indicates that "in the first 3 months after diagnosis of cancer in older patients, the healthcare utilization peaked, typically related to active cancer treatment, and then decreased in the time thereafter."  Healthcare utilization consisted of hospital admission, length of stay, visits to the emergency department, days in intensive care, appoints with general practitioners, home care, and transfers to nursing homes.  According to Professor Hans Wildiers, (General Medical Oncology, University Hospital Leuven, Belgium) "to optimize cancer treatment for older patients, it is important to identify frailty and underlying geriatric conditions at cancer diagnosis."   

To learn more about this study, click here. 

Source mentioned: 

Depoorter V, Vanschoenbeek K, Decoster L, et al. Long-term health-care utilisation in older patients with cancer and the association with the Geriatric 8 screening tool: a retrospective analysis using linked clinical and population-based data in Belgium. The Lancet Healthy Longevity; Published online 13 June 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-7568(23)00081-8

Concurrent chemoradiotherapy followed by adjuvant cisplatin-gemcitabine for the treatment of patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma

The first randomized, controlled phase III trial assessing the efficacy and safety of adding adjuvant cisplatin-gemcitabine chemotherapy after concurrent chemoradiotherapy was recently unveiled at the 2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago.  The trial indicated "significant improvement in 3-year progression-free survival (PFS) compared with cisplatin-fluorouracil regimen in patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma."  

To read more about this trial, click here. 

Sources mentioned: 

• Liu L-T, Liu H, Huang Y, et al. Concurrent chemoradiotherapy followed by adjuvant cisplatin–gemcitabine versus cisplatin–fluorouracil chemotherapy for N2–3 nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a multicentre, open-label, randomised, controlled, phase 3 trial. The Lancet Oncology; Published online 5 June 2023: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(23)00232-2
• Yip PL, Lee AWM, Chua MLK. Adjuvant chemotherapy in nasopharyngeal carcinoma. The Lancet Oncology; Published online 5 June 2023: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(23)00266-8
• Tang L-Q, Liu L-T, Liu H, et al. Concurrent chemoradiotherapy followed by adjuvant cisplatin-gemcitabine versus cisplatin-5-fluorouracil chemotherapy for N2-3 nasopharyngeal carcinoma: A multicentre, open-label, randomised, controlled, phase 3 trial. J Clin Oncol 41, 2023 (suppl 16; abstr 6000).

Blog postings will resume week of June 19th

To all Grey Horizon readers, 

Please note that postings will resume the week of June 19th.   

Thank you, as always, for your continued support of this blog.  

New studies presented at 2023 ASCO annual meeting ties loneliness and major financial event to cancer diagnoses and higher mortality risk

 New studies unveiled at the 2023 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), held in Chicago from June 2-6, 2023, indicate loneliness and experiencing a major financial event as direct correlations to a cancer diagnosis and higher mortality risk.  

Led by Jingxuan Zhao, senior associate scientist of health services research at the American Cancer Society, cancer survivors 50 years and older reported "elevated loneliness scores [and] had higher hazard ratios, indicating higher mortality risks."  These findings occurred even after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, leading to strong recommendations to implement programs to screen for loneliness among cancer survivors and provide social support. 

An additional study unveiled at the ASCO annual meeting indicates that 1/3 of cancer patients experienced a major adverse financial event (AFE), such as bankruptcy, lien, or eviction, prior to being diagnosed with cancer, and were subsequently diagnosed at a later cancer stage.  Of the 101,649 patients studied, 32.6% had a major AFE before being diagnosed, most commonly among non-Hispanic Black, unmarried, and low-income patients.  However, "even 27% of patients in the highest income group had an AFE prior to diagnosis."  

To learn more about these studies, click here and here.