Are the Fried Criteria Predictive of a Functional Decline in Older People With Solid Malignant Tumors?

Identifying the frail elderly patients or those at risk of becoming frail has become a cornerstone of modern geriatric medicine. The term 'frail' has been elusive during quite a long time. Several studies have been conducted over the last 15 years to clarify this concept: fragility is a clinical syndrome defined by an increase of vulnerability following a decline in physiological reserves and organic functions, that compromises the ability to cope with daily life or acute stress.

Many instruments have been developed to identify fragility at the individual level. The 'Fragile' phenotype defined by Fried (Cardiovascular Health Study) is based on 5 criteria: weakness, slowness, low level of activity, exhaustion, and unintentional weight loss. The patient is fragile if it meets at least three out of five criteria. It is 'pre-fragile' if it meets one or two criteria.

In onco-geriatrics, the International onco-geriatrics society recommends the implementation of a 'G8 scale' to detect elderly patients at risk of fragility. People with a positive G8 are then referred to the geriatric team to benefit from a comprehensive geriatric assessment. This evaluation is interpreted by the geriatrician, who draws an action plan to overcome the various problems of the elderly patient. The evaluation also helps the oncologist in the choice of treatment for the patient: palliative care, standard treatment or adapted treatment (No-go, Go-go or slow-go).

However, many studies have shown that fragile patients had a greater morbidity and mortality than non-fragile patients. The rate of postoperative complications and the length of stay are significantly higher in fragile patients suffering from a colorectal cancer treated by elective surgery.

On the other hand and quite surprisingly, another study showed that none of the comprehensive geriatric assessment based fragility indicators was able to predict a post-surgery functional decline in patients having undergone surgery for colorectal cancer.