A validated screening tool may help to identify older adults with early-stage non–small cell lung cancer who could benefit from stereotactic body radiotherapy with curative intent, investigators contend,
Among 43 patients aged 65-89 years (median age 78) with stage T1 or T2 non–small cell lung cancer tumors who underwent stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), scores of 13 or higher on the Geriatric 8 (G8) screening tool were associated with high 2- and 5-year survival rates, reported Toshiya Maebayashi, MD, PhD, from Nihon University in Tokyo, and colleagues.
“Regardless of age, the G8 screening tool may enable us to identify relatively healthy seniors who would be likely to have longer survival times after SBRT for early lung cancer,” they wrote in a study published in the Journal of Geriatric Oncology.
The G8 Screening tool assesses the health status of older patients according to their food intake, recent weight loss, mobility, neuropsychological problems, body mass index, prescription drug use, and age. Higher scores on the scale, which can range from 0 to 17, are indicative of better health status.
To see whether the G8 tool could predict the benefits of SBRT, the investigators performed a retrospective study of long-term outcomes in older patients with early-stage non–small cell lung cancer.
They included 34 patients with T1 tumors and 9 patients with T2 tumors who underwent SBRT from 2004 to 2011 at their center. The median follow-up was 46 months (range, 3-112 months).
Patients with T1 tumors had G8 scores ranging from 9 to 16 (median 13). Patients with T2 tumors had scores ranging from 8 to 15 (median 12).