Comprehensive geriatric assessment basics for the cancer professional

A comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) has been a cornerstone of geriatric practice for many years. However, oncology practitioners are still unfamiliar with it. Yet, recent research has shown an important potential to improve the daily care of older cancer patients. The purpose of this article is to review the basic nature of a CGA, its effectiveness, its applicability to cancer patients, and its cost-effectiveness. Cancer is one of the major health problems in our society. Furthermore, the incidence of cancer increases with age. Nowadays, half of the cancers occur beyond the age of 70. Given the aging of the US population, this proportion is expected to increase in the next decades. A challenge for the oncologists is that older people can have a highly variable health status. Yet little is known yet about how to best assess and integrate into decision making the various health problems patients may have. Taking their clues from the experience of geriatricians, geriatric oncologists advocate the use of a comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) as one of the tools to deal with this problem. It is, for example, part of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines for the elderly'. This article offers a primer on CGA for the reader unfamiliar with the approach in an oncologic setting.