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Palliative Care in Older Adults with Cancer and Frailty

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Frailty in Older Adults with Cancer

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Abstract

Palliative care is an approach to care addressing quality of life, pain and distress symptoms, and psychological and spiritual well-being in patients with serious illness. Access to palliative care is critical, and the early integration of palliative care has a substantial benefit for patients with cancer. In older patients with cancer who are frail, palliative care may be the primary initial treatment approach, helping to mitigate or even avoid the significant adverse effects from cancer therapy to which frail older adults are more susceptible. Frail older adults have unique palliative needs due to higher rates of comorbid conditions, functional impairments, and high rates of complications and symptoms at the end-of-life. This chapter will discuss the availability of palliative care, the ease of access in older adults, the benefits of early integration of palliative care in oncology treatments, pharmacological considerations in older adults, and a special focus on the specifics of care in older cancer patients with frailty.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Joan and Stanford Alexander Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine, McGovern Medical School, Houston, TX, USA

    Arvindselvan Mohanaselvan, Rex Paulino & Holly M. Holmes

  2. Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Lily Wieland

  3. Department of Palliative, Rehabilitation and Integrative Medicine, Division of Cancer Medicine, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    Ishwaria Subbiah

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  1. Arvindselvan Mohanaselvan
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  2. Rex Paulino
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  3. Lily Wieland
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  4. Ishwaria Subbiah
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  5. Holly M. Holmes
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Holly M. Holmes .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Oncology Department, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, UK

    Fabio Gomes

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Mohanaselvan, A., Paulino, R., Wieland, L., Subbiah, I., Holmes, H.M. (2022). Palliative Care in Older Adults with Cancer and Frailty. In: Gomes, F. (eds) Frailty in Older Adults with Cancer. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89162-6_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89162-6_15

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