NCCN Releases Guidelines to Tailor Cancer Care for Older Adults
News related to:National Comprehensive Cancer Network · 2 min read
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) has released a new patient resource aimed at helping older adults with cancer navigate their treatment journey. This guideline, designed for both patients and caregivers, emphasizes the importance of personalized assessments to tailor cancer care to the unique needs of aging populations.
According to Dr. Efrat Dotan, Chair of the NCCN Guidelines Panel for Older Adult Oncology, the rise in cancer diagnoses among older adults is due to increased life expectancy.
The new NCCN Guidelines for Patients: Older Adults with Cancer are developed from the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology, which are the trusted treatment recommendations relied on by professional healthcare providers worldwide. These patient guidelines are available for free at NCCN.org/patientguidelines or via the NCCN Patient Guides for Cancer App. Printed copies are available for a nominal fee at Amazon.
Dr. Glenn Sykes, a patient advocate and member of the NCCN Guidelines Panel for Older Adult Oncology, highlighted the importance of these guidelines.
The guidelines include easy-to-understand information about which assessment tools are available and how they should be used to help make decisions. They also address ways to support people with cognition issues or at higher risk for falls. While the likelihood of side effects and comorbidities increases with age, the guidelines stress that people can experience a wide range of mental and physical fitness well into their 80s, 90s, and beyond.
Dr. Louise C. Walter, a member of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Vice-Chair of the NCCN Guidelines Panel for Older Adult Oncology, emphasized the importance of individualized care. "We all age differently. People should really be talking with their doctor about what makes sense for them as an individual, with their specific health situations, and come up with the best plan that's not based on chronologic age, but on what's most important to them," she said.
The NCCN Guidelines for Patients are updated every year in both English and Spanish. The award-winning series includes more than 75 resources covering nearly every type of cancer, plus prevention, screening, and supportive care topics like survivorship, fatigue, and distress management. They use plain language and images to help everyone play an informed, active role in making treatment decisions.
The guidelines are part of the NCCN's broader mission to define and advance quality, effective, equitable, and accessible cancer care and prevention. Walter.
For those seeking more information, the NCCN Guidelines for Patients are available for free at NCCN.org/patientguidelines or via the NCCN Patient Guides for Cancer App. Printed copies are available for a nominal fee at Amazon. The guidelines are made possible through funding from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Foundation (NCCNF). To support the mission of improving cancer care, visit NCCNFoundation.org.