Geriatric assessment in the oncology setting

The optimal management of elderly patients with cancer includes, besides the tumour assessment, a geriatric evaluation procedure. To date, comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) remains the gold standard of evaluation in older patients. To be effective, the process must be performed by a team with special expertise in caring for elderly people, in a specific geriatric unit. Alternative procedures have been developed and studied in the oncology setting, multidimensional geriatric assessment and screening tools. This approach has been developed to help oncologists differentiate the healthy elderly from other older patients whose problems would possibly interfere with cancer treatment and who require a pre-treatment CGA. Studies have shown that healthy older patients derive no advantage from CGA, but benefit from cancer treatment as much as younger patients.