[Comprehensive geriatric assessment and complications after resection for lung cancer]

With the expanding elderly population comes an increasing prevalence of lung cancer. Surgery remains the mainstay of treatment for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer. Standard treatment strategies have mostly been validated in young adults. Curative resection is feasible in older patients but careful preoperative evaluation is needed, taking into account the physiologic changes that occur with ageing. A tool used by geriatricians, a comprehensive geriatric assessment, can contribute to our understanding of physiologic age through an evaluation of prognostic factors that are independent predictors of morbidity.

Study 08-05 of the French Lung Oncology Group is a prospective, national, multicentre study. All patients aged over 70 years with a suspicion of lung cancer, receiving curative lung resection, will be included. After inclusion, a comprehensive geriatric assessment (evaluating such diverse areas as functional status, nutritional status, cognition, psychological functioning, and social support) will be performed. The primary outcome is the value of the comprehensive geriatric assessment in predicting the risk of post-operative complications after lung resection for cancer. Post-operative morbidity at 30-days after pulmonary resection will be graded according to the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events version 3.0. The follow-up period is one year.

This global assessment may help to initiate specific care plans for the management of lung cancer in the elderly.