Cancer care for people with dementia: Literature overview and recommendations for practice and research

Abstract

As many countries experience population aging, patients with cancer are becoming older and have more preexisting comorbidities, which include prevalent, age-related, chronic conditions such as dementia. People living with dementia (PLWD) are vulnerable to health disparities, and dementia has high potential to complicate and adversely affect care and outcomes across the cancer trajectory. This report offers an overview of dementia and its prevalence among patients with cancer and a summary of the research literature examining cancer care for PLWD. The reviewed research indicates that PLWD are more likely to have cancer diagnosed at an advanced stage, receive no or less extensive cancer treatment, and have poorer survival after a cancer diagnosis. These cancer disparities do not necessarily signify inappropriately later diagnosis or lower treatment of people with dementia as aThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

An incidental finding of lung nodule in patient presenting with posterior chest wall trauma: A case report

“…Ashley et al. [6] found dementia patients have difficulty noticing new symptoms, especially acknowledging them as potential cancer signs and appreciating cancer's seriousness, and thus may not report symptoms to caregivers or clinicians and may cause diagnostic overshadowing.…”

Clinical image: Cervicofacial rotation skin flap in PLWD patients

“…She refused to be referred by the GP several times because of her severe dementia. Research has shown that people living with dementia (PLWD) are vulnerable to health disparities, so dementia has the high potential to complicate and adversely affect care outcomes across the cancer trajectory 1 …”

“…Research has shown that people living with dementia (PLWD) are vulnerable to health disparities, so dementia has the high potential to complicate and adversely affect care outcomes across the cancer trajectory. 1 This patient's husband brought her to our service because the mass was causing daily difficulties (bleeding and pain during wound care). The mass was excised and reconstructed in one surgery.…”

Key Considerations for the Treatment of Advanced Breast Cancer in Older Adults: An Expert Consensus of the Canadian Treatment Landscape

“…For example, comprehensive assessment must not only involve gauging the extent to which a patient is able to participate in their own treatment decision making, but also involving often one or more family members or caregivers. These persons may or may not have a legally appointed role for decision making and may have opinions which differ or conflict with the patient [37].…”