Geriatric assessment  was most often completed to describe a patient 's health and functional status .
Geriatric assessment  in the oncology setting is feasible , and some domains are associated with adverse outcomes .
However , there is limited evidence that geriatric assessment impacted treatment decision making .
BACKGROUND Geriatric assessment is a multidisciplinary diagnostic process that evaluates the older adult 's medical , psychological , social , and functional capacity .
No systematic review of the use of geriatric assessment in oncology has been conducted .
The goals of this systematic review were : 1 ) to provide an overview of all geriatric assessment instruments used in the oncology setting ; 2 ) to examine the feasibility and psychometric properties of those instruments ; and 3 ) to systematic ally evaluate the effectiveness of geriatric assessment in predicting or modifying outcomes ( including the impact on treatment decision making , toxicity of treatment , and mortality ) .
Effectiveness of a geriatric evaluation unit. A randomized clinical trial.
We r and omly assigned frail elderly in patients with a high probability of nursing-home placement to an innovative geriatric evaluation unit intended to provide improved diagnostic assessment , therapy , rehabilitation , and placement . Patients r and omly assigned to the experimental ( n = 63 ) and control ( n = 60 ) groups were equivalent at entry . At one year , patients who had been assigned to the geriatric unit had much lower mortality than controls ( 23.8 vs. 48.3 per cent , P less than 0.005 ) and were less likely to have initially been discharged to a nursing home ( 12.7 vs. 30.0 per cent , P less than 0.05 ) or to have spent any time in nursing home during the follow-up period ( 26.9 vs. 46.7 per cent , P less than 0.05 ) . The control-group patients had substantially more acute-care hospital days , nursing-home days , and acute-care hospital readmissions . Patients in the geriatric unit were significantly more likely to have improvement in functional status and morale than controls ( P less than 0.05 ) . Direct costs for institutional care were lower for the experimental group , especially after adjustment for survival . We conclude that geriatric evaluation units can provide substantial benefits at minimal cost for appropriate groups of elderly patients , over and above the benefits of traditional hospital approaches
Geriatric assessment  was most often completed to describe a patient 's health and functional status .
Geriatric assessment  in the oncology setting is feasible , and some domains are associated with adverse outcomes .
However , there is limited evidence that geriatric assessment impacted treatment decision making .
BACKGROUND Geriatric assessment is a multidisciplinary diagnostic process that evaluates the older adult 's medical , psychological , social , and functional capacity .
No systematic review of the use of geriatric assessment in oncology has been conducted .
The goals of this systematic review were : 1 ) to provide an overview of all geriatric assessment instruments used in the oncology setting ; 2 ) to examine the feasibility and psychometric properties of those instruments ; and 3 ) to systematic ally evaluate the effectiveness of geriatric assessment in predicting or modifying outcomes ( including the impact on treatment decision making , toxicity of treatment , and mortality ) .