Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment for Older Women with Early-Stage (Non-Metastatic) Breast Cancer—An Updated Systematic Review of the Literature

Abstract

Background: A previous systematic review by our team (2012) undertook comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) in breast cancer and concluded there was not sufficient evidence to instate CGA as mandatory practice. SIOG/EUSOMA guidelines published in 2021 advocate the use of CGA in breast cancer patients. The aim is to perform an updated systematic review of the literature. Methods: A systematic review of studies published between 2012 and 2022 that assessed the use of CGA in breast cancer was performed on Cochrane, PubMed and Embase. Results: A total of 18 articles including 4734 patients with breast cancer were identified. The studies covered four themes for use of CGA in breast cancer: (1) to determine factors influencing survival (2) as an adjunct to treatment decision-making (3) to measure quality of life, and (4) to determine which tools should be included. There was evidence to support the use of CGA in themes 1–3; however, it is uncertain which assessment tools are best to use (theme 4). Conclusions: CGA can be used to determine factors affecting survival and quality of life in breast cancer patients and can therefore be used to aid treatment decision-making. Further work is required to determine gold standard CGA.

Keywords

• comprehensive geriatric assessment
• breast cancer
• primary
• operable