Center for Cancer & Aging

Education is at the heart of the Center’s mission. Across the University of Pennsylvania health system, we are building a learning ecosystem that equips clinicians, trainees, and researchers to deliver high-value, age-attuned cancer care. Through interdisciplinary system-wide learning collaboratives, the Center brings geriatric principles into everyday oncology practice—helping clinicians recognize vulnerability, tailor treatment intensity, and improve communication about goals and function. These efforts ensure that every Penn Medicine site, from Philadelphia to Princeton and Lancaster, delivers exceptional quality care.

In local communities, the Center is addressing the twin challenges of overtreatment and undertreatment that often affect older adults with cancer. By connecting patients to therapeutic clinical trials, promoting pragmatic care-delivery studies, and training community clinicians to identify candidates for research participation, we are expanding access to innovation. Our goal is to ensure that older adults—who comprise the majority of cancer patients yet remain underrepresented in trials—are not only included in research but also benefit from its findings. Through these initiatives, the Center is shaping a future where cancer care for older adults is both scientifically rigorous and deeply human.

Research is central to the Center for Cancer & Aging’s mission to make cancer care more effective, equitable, and person-centered. Our studies span the full continuum of discovery—from pragmatic trials that test real-world interventions to implementation projects that translate evidence into daily practice. By integrating data from geriatric assessments, patient-reported outcomes, and electronic health records, we are developing new tools to predict risk, personalize treatment, and measure what truly matters to patients: function, independence, and quality of life.

Through partnerships across Penn Medicine and PC3I, the center is building the evidence base needed to close the gap between clinical efficacy and everyday effectiveness. This work directly addresses one of oncology’s most pressing challenges: the underrepresentation of older adults in therapeutic trials. By embedding research opportunities in community clinics, we ensure that older adults—who bear the highest burden of cancer—also help shape the future of its treatment. In doing so, we are not just studying better ways to care for older adults; we are proving that innovation in how we deliver care can be as impactful as innovation in what we deliver.

Innovation at the Center for Cancer & Aging goes beyond new drugs or technologies—it means redesigning care systems to better serve older adults. We are developing scalable, data-driven models that integrate digital health, behavioral economics, and precision supportive care to anticipate needs before crises occur. From EHR-integrated dashboards that flag functional decline to default-based interventions that normalize advance care planning, our work makes the “right thing” the easy thing to do. Each innovation is designed to be practical, reproducible, and human-centered—ensuring that every patient, regardless of age or setting, receives care aligned with their goals, values, and life beyond cancer.