PLOS ONE · 11 authors, 10 centres
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This prospective cohort study assessed pre-chemotherapy frailty using a comprehensive geriatric assessment in 178 elderly cancer patients and evaluated its ability to predict health-related quality of life four weeks after chemotherapy. Frailty was a significant predictor only of the illness burden domain of quality of life, with no significant predictive value for the other six domains.
This prospective cohort study enrolled 178 elderly patients with cancer aged 65 years or older who were expected to receive curative chemotherapy at three Taiwanese hospitals from September 2016 to November 2018. A comprehensive geriatric assessment was administered one week before chemotherapy (T0) to evaluate frailty across five domains (nutrition, mood, functional status, comorbidity, and polypharmacy), with impairment in more than two domains defining frailty. HRQOL was reassessed four weeks after chemotherapy (T1) using the EORTC QLQ-ELD14. A total of 103 participants (57.9%) met the frailty criteria. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that demographic variables and frailty status together explained 31.1%–56.7% of variance across seven HRQOL domains. Frailty was a significant predictor only of the illness burden domain (β = 9.5; p < .05), while no significant differences were found for the remaining domains. The study is limited by its single-culture sample, reliance on the rarely used EORTC QLQ-ELD14 which assesses domain subscales rather than a total HRQOL score, and the absence of measured variables such as financial toxicity, treatment side effects, and spiritual well-being that may influence HRQOL.
