NCCN Guidelines® Insights: Older Adult Oncology, Version 1.2021.

The NCCN Guidelines for Older Adult Oncology address specific issues related to the management of cancer in older adults, including screening and comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA), assessing the risks and benefits of treatment, preventing or decreasing complications from therapy, and managing patients deemed to be at high risk for treatment-related toxicity. CGA is a multidisciplinary, in-depth evaluation that assesses the objective health of the older adult while evaluating multiple domains, which may affect cancer prognosis and treatment choices. These NCCN Guidelines Insights focus on recent updates to the NCCN Guidelines providing specific practical framework for the use of CGA when evaluating older adults with cancer.

Race and outcomes of autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation for multiple myeloma.

Blacks are twice as likely to develop and die from multiple myeloma (MM), and are less likely to receive an autologous hematopoietic-cell transplant (AHCT) for MM compared to Whites. The influence of race on outcomes of AHCT for MM is not well described. We compared the probability of overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), disease progression, and nonrelapse mortality (NRM) among Black (N=303) and White (N=1892) recipients of AHCT for MM, who were reported to the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) from 1995 to 2005. The Black cohort was more likely to be female, and had better Karnofsky performance scores, but lower hemoglobin and albumin levels at diagnosis. Black recipients were younger and more likely to be transplanted later in their disease course. Disease stage and treatment characteristics prior to AHCT were similar between the 2 groups. Black and White recipients had similar probabilities of 5-year OS (52% versus 47%, P=.19) and PFS (19% versus 21%, P=.64) as well as cumulative incidences of disease progression (72% versus 72%, P=.97) and NRM (9% versus 8%, P=.52). In multivariate analyses, race was not associated with any of these endpoints. Black recipients of AHCT for MM have similar outcomes compared to Whites, suggesting that the reasons underlying lower rates of AHCT in Blacks need to be studied further to ensure equal access to effective therapy.

Bringing Global Health Home: The Case of Global to Local in King County, Washington.

The article describes the experience of testing successful global health interventions in the cities of SeaTac and Tukwila, Washington-2 very diverse, underserved communities outside of Seattle that experience significant health disparities compared with surrounding areas in King County. Topics covered include an overview of the partnership that established Global to Local, the process of engaging Seattle-based global health institutions in identifying global health strategies to test, identifying communities experiencing health disparities that might benefit from global health-inspired interventions, engaging those local communities to understand the perceived drivers of poor health outcomes, tailoring global interventions to the local context, launching programs, and the successes and challenges that have emerged throughout this process. Global health strategies that were tested and are reported on in the article include the use of community health workers to support chronic disease prevention and management, partnering with and building the capacity of local organizations and institutions, linking public health and primary care by addressing the social determinants of health in a primary care and community setting, and using mobile phones to transform practices for managing type 2 diabetes. The paper concludes that based on the early learnings of this approach, there is value in looking to tested and proven global health strategies to address health disparities in underserved communities in the United States and calls for further exploration of this approach by other actors.