Effectiveness of Therapeutic Patient Education Interventions for Older Adults with Cancer: A Systematic Review

The incidence of cancer increases with age and demographics shows that the population of western countries is dramatically ageing. The new discipline of Geriatric Oncology is emerging aiming at providing tailored and patient-centred support to older adults with cancer. With the development of oral cancer therapy and outpatient treatments, Therapeutic Patient Education (TPE), aiming at enabling the patient and their relatives to cope with the disease in partnership with health professionals, appears to be an interesting and useful tool. The purpose of this paper is to search for evidence of the effectiveness of educational interventions for patients in older adults with cancer. The first screening found 2,617 articles, of which 150 were eligible for review. Among them, fourteen finally met the inclusion criteria: experimental and quasi-experimental studies enrolling older adults (over 65 years old), suffering from cancer and receiving an educational intervention. The types of educational intervention were diverse in these studies (support by phone and web base material). The results appear to be positive on anxiety, depression and psychological distress, patient knowledge and pain. However, data currently available on the effectiveness of a TPE program in Geriatric Oncology is lacking. Further studies are needed to assess the effectiveness of TPE programs adapted to the specific circumstances of the older adult.