Pilot Study of a Geriatric Intervention After Colorectal and Lung Cancer Surgery

Our key background data come from the randomized study conducted by McCorkle et al.

After evaluation testing, patients will be randomly assigned (similarly to a coin toss) to
one of two possible follow-up groups. One would be a regular post-surgery care group
(control group), the other will have in addition a support by geriatric nurse practitioner
(intervention group).

Patients who are assigned to the intervention group: once they arrive home, in addition to
their normal post-surgery care, will receive a once a week home visit by a geriatric nurse
practitioner (GNP). The GNP will also call the patient once a week in between. The GNP will
check any problem patients may have during their recovery and provide or organize care for
it. The GNP has a checklist of problems to address so that we can reliably reproduce our
intervention in other patients. The GNP will work together with the patient's various
doctors and caregivers, as well as a geriatric team. Some of the visits or the telephone
calls maybe tape-recorded so that the research team can evaluate the information provided to
the patient. We will record any complication patients might have from surgery.

No matter which treatment group the patient is assigned to, at the end of a 4 weeks period,
we will repeat the tests we did at the beginning to see how they change.

Inclusion Criteria:

- Colorectal cancer, stage III or IV, confirmed by histology

- Abdominal surgery by a University of South Florida (USF) surgeon at Moffitt Cancer
Center or Tampa General Hospital (TGH)

- Age 60 years and older

- Informed consent

- Living within a one (1) hour radius of Moffitt

Exclusion Criteria:

- Discharge planned to a rehabilitation facility or a nursing home

- Unable to answer the questionnaires (e.g. because of cognitive impairment, blindness,
deafness)

- Post-operative inpatient stay >one (1) month