Integrated geriatric assessment and treatment (INTEGERATE) in older people with cancer planned for systemic anticancer therapy.

Abstract

12011 Background: Older people experience significant adverse effects of cancer and anti-cancer therapy due to age-related vulnerabilities, including medical, functional, cognitive, nutritional and psychosocial issues. Comprehensive geriatric assessment and management (CGAM) provides a powerful framework to assess an older person’s health status and offers a coordinated, person-centered approach to care. Despite its effectiveness, the uptake of CGAM in oncology has been limited due to a lack of randomized evidence in this setting. This study evaluated the effectiveness of CGAM in older people with cancer. Methods: INTEGERATE is a prospective, randomized, parallel group, open-label study in patients aged >70 years with cancer planned for chemotherapy, targeted therapy or immunotherapy. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive either geriatrician-led CGAM integrated with usual care (integrated oncogeriatric care) or usual care alone, using minimization to balance treatment intent, cancer type, age, sex and performance status. Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) was assessed using the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ-C30 and QLQ-ELD14 at 0, 12, 18 and 24 weeks. The primary outcome was HRQOL measured by the validated Elderly Functional Index (ELFI) score. Major secondary outcomes included function, mood, nutrition, health utility, treatment delivery, healthcare utilization and survival. Results: Of the 154 patients who underwent randomization, 13 died by week 12 and 130 (92.2% of the remaining patients) completed at least two primary outcome assessments. For the primary outcome, patients in the intervention group had significantly better ELFI score than the usual care group across all followup timepoints, with a maximal difference at week 18 (estimated marginal mean ELFI score 72.0 vs 58.7, p= 0.001). In addition, significant differences favoring the intervention group over the usual care group were seen in HRQOL (domains: physical, role and social functioning; mobility, burden of illness and future worries), unplanned hospital admissions (-1.2 admissions per person-years, p< 0.001) and early treatment discontinuation (32.9% vs 53.2%, p = 0.01). Conclusions: Integrated oncogeriatric care led to improvements in HRQOL, unplanned hospital admissions and treatment discontinuation in older people receiving systemic anti-cancer therapy. Older people (>70 years) planned for anti-cancer therapy should receive CGAM to optimize their clinical care and health outcomes. Clinical trial information: ACTRN12614000399695 .