8
Assessment
Table 1. Recommended Geriatric Oncology Tools
The following tools can provide
estimates of risk for chemotherapy
toxicity Items
CARG toxicity tool: provides estimates
for overall risk of grade 3-5 chemotherapy
toxicity.
11 items: prior falls (1 or more vs none),
hearing problems (deaf to excellent),
limitations in walking one block (limited
a lot, limited a little, not limited),
difficulties with taking meds, interference
of social activities by physical health
and/or emotional problems (all of the
time to none of the time) as well as age,
height, weight, gender, cancer type
(gastrointestinal vs genitourinary vs
other), dosage (standard vs dose reduced),
number of chemotherapy agents (mono
vs poly), hemoglobin level, and creatinine
clearance.
CRASH tool; provides estimates
separately for risk of grade 3 hematologic
and grade 3-4 non-hematologic toxicity
Assessment of risk of hematologic
toxicity includes: diastolic blood
pressure (>72), IADL score (<26), and
lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (>459);
Assessment of risk of non-hematologic
toxicity includes: Eastern Cooperative
Oncology Group (ECOG)-performance
status (PS), MMSE (<30), and MNA
(<28); chemotherapy intensity is assessed
with MAX2 index.
The following screening tools have
been independently associated with
adverse outcomes in older patients
with cancer receiving chemotherapy Items
G8 8 items covering appetite, weight loss,
neuropsychological problems, BMI,
number of medications, patient self-rated
health, and age; score of ≥14 signifies
impairment
Derived from the MNA.
(cont'd)
