Grant: CIHR New Investigator

Most people diagnosed with cancer are older adults who often have other chronic diseases as well, which may affect how long they will live and how well they tolerate cancer treatment. In the coming five years, Dr. Puts plans to conduct research that will help establish evidence-based care for older adults suffering from both cancer and chronic diseases. To do so, she has planned several studies. First, she will conduct a pilot randomized clinical study to examine how "geriatric assessment" (GA) can affect health and wellbeing of older adults and whether it is easy to use in a cancer clinic. GA can give a detailed picture of an older adult's health status because it focuses on identifying health issues that health professionals may be unaware of, such as nutritional issues, memory problems, etc. Conducting a GA of an older adult in a cancer clinic might help identify issues that may affect his/her ability to tolerate cancer treatment. However, no high quality evidence supports the use of GA yet. After the pilot, Dr. Puts has planned a larger study to examine the effectiveness of the GA. this intervention. Dr. Puts' second research focus is treatment decision-making from the perspectives of older adults with cancer, their family caregivers, and health care providers. Dr. Puts has ongoing studies to study how the treatment-decision making process occurs, how other health conditions affect that decision-making process and the support needs of older adults, their caregivers and health care providers during this process. In the next five years Dr. Puts plans to develop and test new interventions to improve the quality of the treatment decision-making process. Dr. Puts' third research focus is older adults' (health) care needs during cancer treatment. All projects combined are aimed at improving clinical care for older adults with cancer.