Establishing a Geriatric Cancer Program

Comprehensive geriatric oncology programs are often found in academic medical centers, but that does not mean that community oncology settings cannot establish something similar as well, says Janine Overcash, PhD, associate professor of clinical nursing and director of the Adult/Geriatric Nurse Practitioner Program at The Ohio State University.

While it does take many resources to have a multidisciplinary team established to treat older patients, Overcash emphasized that smaller cancer centers can scale the model back by having nurses conduct components of the comprehensive assessment and have a working system of referrals to other health care professionals, if need be.