Geriatric assessment is superior to oncologists' clinical judgement in identifying frailty.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Frailty is a syndrome associated with increased vulnerability and an important predictor of outcomes in older cancer patients. Systematic assessments to identify frailty are seldom applied, and oncologists' ability to identify frailty is scarcely investigated.

Methods

We compared oncologists' classification of frailty (onc-frail) based on clinical judgement with a modified geriatric assessment (mGA), and investigated associations between frailty and overall survival. Patients ⩾70 years referred for medical cancer treatment were eligible. mGA-frailty was defined as impairment in at least one of the following: daily activities, comorbidity, polypharmacy, physical function or at least one geriatric syndrome (cognitive impairment, depression, malnutrition, falls).

SUBMITTER: Kirkhus L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5558687 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature