The Desire to Better Understand Older Adults with Solid Tumors to Improve Management: Assessment and Guided Interventions—The French PACA EST Cohort Experience

• Main Authors: Rabia Boulahssass, Sebastien Gonfrier, Noémie Champigny, Sandra Lassalle, Eric François, Paul Hofman, Olivier Guerin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-02-01
• Series: Cancers
• Subjects: cancer; older adults; geriatric assessment; geriatric interventions
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/11/2/192

Todays challenge in geriatric oncology is to screen patients who need geriatric follow-up. The main goal of this study was to analyze factors that identify patients, in a large cohort of patients with solid tumors, who need more geriatric interventions and therefore specific follow-up. Between April 2012 and May 2018, 3530 consecutive patients were enrolled in the PACA EST cohort (France). A total of 3140 patients were finally enrolled in the study. A Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) was performed at baseline. We analyzed the associations between factors at baseline (geriatric and oncologic factors) and the need to perform more than three geriatric interventions. The mean age of the population was 82 years old with 59% of patients aged older than 80 years old. A total of 8819 geriatric interventions were implemented for the 3140 patients. The percentage of patients with three or more geriatric interventions represented 31.8% (n = 999) of the population. In multivariate analyses, a Mini Nutritional assessment (MNA) <17, an MNA ≤23·5 and ≥17, a performans status (PS) >2, a dependence on Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL), a Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) ≥5, a Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) <24, and a Screening tool G8 ≤14 were independent risk factors associated with more geriatric interventions. Factors associated with more geriatric interventions could assist practitioners in selecting patients for specific geriatric follow-up.