Deployment of Teleconsulting in Geriatric Oncology for Older Patients

Cancer affects mostly older adults. The development of Geriatric Oncology has greatly improved the management of older patients with the Comprehensive Geriatric Assessments (CGA) being conducted before cancer treatment. A CGA encompasses several dimensions such as comorbidities, but also functional, nutritional or cognitive domains. The International guidelines recommended establishing cooperation with pharmacists as part of the CGA in order to review prescriptions of older patients with cancer and to avoid adverse side effects of treatment. However, the CGA before starting oncological treatment offer is limited in France, especially in some regions which are less populated, or where access to medical centers are difficult. The main objective of our work is to evaluate the impact of telemedicine in geriatric oncology consultation of unexplained re-hospitalization rate at 3 months in the acute care unit. The secondary objectives are to evaluate the impact of telemedicine on unexplained re-hospitalization rate at 6 months, on the secondary toxicities, on the postoperative complications in patients treated surgically, on the overall survival and on the acceptance of the pharmaceutical recommendations by the physicians, but also the impact of telemedicine in medico-economic terms and the satisfaction of patients and oncologists benefiting from teleconsultation. It is a multicenter, prospective, randomized study involving 500 patients in 9 participating centers, including 6 peripheral hospitals. The experiment will be represented by the implementation of telemedicine in oncology centers where this expertise is not very available, allowing them to benefit from geriatric oncology teleconsultation and pharmaceutical tele-expertise carried out by three university hospitals. Patients recruited by oncologists, according to the inclusion criteria, will give their written consent to participate. Centers were randomized. In the control arm, patients will be treated according to the usual oncological management as defined for each type of cancer. In the interventional arm, patients will benefit from a CGA with a geriatric oncology teleconsultation as well as a pharmaceutical tele-expertise before the initiation of oncological treatment.