Engineering the fitness of older patients for chemotherapy

An exploration of Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment in practice

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5082448
AutoresAlexandra L Mccarthy (0000-0002-8979-2926, Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology; Division of Cancer Services, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Australia), Peta S Cook (0000-0002-5985-193X, University of Tasmania), Patsy Yates (0000-0001-8946-8504, Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology; Division of Cancer Services, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Australia)
Año2014
Volumen18
Número2
Páginas196-212
Fecha de publicación2014-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaHealth An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health Illness and Medicine (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1363-4593 • E-ISSN: 1461-7196
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1363459313488007
PMID23703221
OpenAlexW2087618660
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas29

Clinicians often report that currently available methods to assess older patients, including standard clinical consultations, do not elicit the information necessary to make an appropriate cancer treatment recommendation for older cancer patients. An increasingly popular way of assessing the potential of older patients to cope with chemotherapy is a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment. What constitutes Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment, however, is open to interpretation and varies from one setting to another. Furthermore, Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment's usefulness as a predictor of fitness for chemotherapy and as a determinant of actual treatment is not well understood. In this article, we analyse how Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment was developed for use in a large cancer service in an Australian capital city. Drawing upon Actor-Network Theory, our findings reveal how, during its development, Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment was made both a tool and a science. Furthermore, we briefly explore the tensions that we experienced as scholars who analyse medico-scientific practices and as practitioner-designers charged with improving the very tools we critique. Our study contributes towards geriatric oncology by scrutinising the medicalisation of ageing, unravelling the practices of standardisation and illuminating the multiplicity of 'fitness for chemotherapy

Cancer · Clinical Practice · Geriatric oncology · Geriatrics · Psychiatry · Computer Science · Frailty in Older Adults · Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life · Medicine · Nursing · Palliative Care and End-of-Life Issues · Psychology · Gerontology