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Oncogeriatrics (part 1.). Frailty in older adults with cancer
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Abstract
About onehalf of cancer cases and two-thirds of cancer deaths occur in patients 65 years of age or older. Therefore, understanding the health status of an older patient is just as important as staging of the cancer.
Frailty is a complex, multidimensional syndrome of increased vulnerability and loss of adaptive capacity/resistance to external stressors, resulting in an increased risk of adverse outcomes. Clinical presentation is non-specific: fatigue, unexplained weight loss, frequent infections, decline in physical mobility/balance/gait speed. Therefore, the routine format of preoperative investigations often does not allow for adequate frailty identification. There are two principal models of frailty: the phenotype model and the accumulation of deficits model. There is no consensus on an operational definition of frailty. However, it has been demonstrated that frailty, not chronological age, is the most important risk factor for poor outcome. Therefore, frailty identification should be obligatory before the beginning of the oncologic treatment.
Abstract
About onehalf of cancer cases and two-thirds of cancer deaths occur in patients 65 years of age or older. Therefore, understanding the health status of an older patient is just as important as staging of the cancer.
Frailty is a complex, multidimensional syndrome of increased vulnerability and loss of adaptive capacity/resistance to external stressors, resulting in an increased risk of adverse outcomes. Clinical presentation is non-specific: fatigue, unexplained weight loss, frequent infections, decline in physical mobility/balance/gait speed. Therefore, the routine format of preoperative investigations often does not allow for adequate frailty identification. There are two principal models of frailty: the phenotype model and the accumulation of deficits model. There is no consensus on an operational definition of frailty. However, it has been demonstrated that frailty, not chronological age, is the most important risk factor for poor outcome. Therefore, frailty identification should be obligatory before the beginning of the oncologic treatment.
Keywords
oral cancer, knowledge, risk factors, HPV, high school students, tobacco smoking, electronic cigarettes smoking, alcohol consumption, health education
About this articleTitle
Oncogeriatrics (part 1.). Frailty in older adults with cancer
Journal
Nowotwory. Journal of Oncology
Issue
Article type
Review paper
Pages
55-57
Published online
2019-08-02
Page views
487
Article views/downloads
638
DOI
Bibliographic record
Nowotwory. Journal of Oncology 2019;69(2):55-57.
Keywords
oral cancer
knowledge
risk factors
HPV
high school students
tobacco smoking
electronic cigarettes smoking
alcohol consumption
health education
Authors
Jakub Kenig