gms | German Medical Science

The use of chemotherapy in elderly cancer patients is a challenging task in clinical hematology and oncology. Unfortunately, data from clinical trials on which treatment decisions in this patient population could be based is scarce. Therefore, epidemiological data, and the description of current treatment patterns and outcome of therapy is of major importance. Recently, the first German multicenter register has started collecting clinical data in elderly cancer patients, including a short geriatric assessment (using ADL, iADL, MMSE and Timed Up&GO; for reference see Friedrich et al, 2003). Besides a baseline assessment, a follow-up visit after 8-12 weeks and a final visit after 6 months is documented. Participating sites include office-based hematologists and oncologists, non-university specialized departments and university hospitals. After completion of a pilot phase with about 300 patients ≥ 70 years with hematological malignancies or solid tumors, we plan to increase the number of sites, aiming at inclusion of a couple of thousand patients. Purpose of the register is to describe the prevalence of geriatric issues, the correlation of treatment decisions with epidemiological and clinical data, and the assessment of potential prognostic and predictive factors for compliance, treatment response, and toxicity. Furthermore, the register will allow comparison of characteristics of patients treated at different institutions. Finally, the predicitive value and the clinical feasibility of the different screening instruments will be evaluated. This register is a project of the Initiative for Geriatric Hematology and Oncology IN-GHO (Initiative Geriatrische Hämatologie und Onkologie), supported by ORTHO BIOTECH, Division of Janssen-Cilag GmbH, Germany.