A screening tool to identify frailty in older people with lymphoma and help assess treatment and social support needs

By 2020, two million people aged 65 and over will be living with a cancer diagnosis, and about 14,000 people are diagnosed with lymphoma each year. Assessment methods, such as the comprehensive geriatric assessment or frailty scoring tools, can help determine how well patients may tolerate cancer treatment. This article describes how a frailty assessment tool was identified for use with older people diagnosed with lymphoma, to help identify frailty in this patient group before treatment commenced, and to ensure that appropriate social support was organised if required. The article describes how the haematology clinical nurse specialists use the tool to identify frailty in newly diagnosed patients, who are then referred to the primary care team for a comprehensive geriatric assessment, and to the hospital’s Macmillan support workers for a review of their social care needs.