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 ) .
Pre-operative assessment of cancer in the elderly (PACE): a comprehensive assessment of underlying characteristics of elderly cancer patients prior to elective surgery.
BACKGROUND Cancer is a disease that particularly affects the elderly and , although surgery is the first treatment choice , many elderly cancer patients do not receive st and ard surgery because they are considered unfit for treatment due to an inaccurate estimation of operative risk . Pre-operative Assessment of Cancer in the Elderly ( PACE ) was developed in order to address the need to provide detailed information about the functional reserve of the elderly cancer patient to aid individualised management . METHODS PACE incorporates a battery of vali date d instruments including the  Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment ( CGA ) , Brief Fatigue Inventory ( BFI ) , Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status ( ECOG-PS ) , and American Society Anesthesiologists ( ASA ) grade . An international prospect i ve study was conducted with 460 consecutive elderly cancer patients ( 216 breast , 146 GIT , 71 GUT , 27 other ) receiving PACE prior to receiving elective surgery .  RESULTS Three hundred and eighty four patients ( 83.4 % ) were observed to have at least one co-morbidity ; the most common being hypertension ( n=246 , 53.5 % ) . More than two thirds of the patients had good functional and mental status according to PACE . After adjusting for age , sex and type of cancer , six of the seven items of PACE were found to be significantly associated with co-morbidities ( according to the Satariano 's Index of Co-morbidities ( SIC ) ) . A multivariate analysis identified IADL , BFI and ASA to be the most important instruments in explaining SIC . DISCUSSION PACE has been effectively used to describe the functional capacity and health status in an international cohort of elderly cancer patients . The majority of PACE instruments have been found to be significantly associated with co-morbidities ( SIC ) and can distinguish between type and severity of cancer . PACE represents a useful tool in evaluating onco-geriatric fitness for surgery
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 ) .