[P1090] VALIDATION OF THE G8 IN OLDER HAEMATOLOGICAL PATIENTS
Anja Velghe:Geriatrics,Ghent University Hospital,Ghent,Belgium|Mirko Petrovic:Geriatrics,Ghent University Hospital,Ghent,Belgium|Stefanie Debuyser:Geriatrics,Ghent University Hospital,Ghent,Belgium|Rein Demuynck:Geriatrics,Ghent University Hospital,Ghent,Belgium|Lucien Noens:Haematology,Ghent University Hospital,Ghent,Belgium.
Given the increased age- and gender-specific incidence rates for Acute Myelogenous Leukaemia (AML), Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS), Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL) and Multiple Myeloma (MM) over the age of 70, haematologists are more and more confronted with necessity of decision making in older patients. However, the group of older patients is very heterogeneous with more comorbidities, more often a poor performance status at diagnosis and less tolerance to intensive therapy.
Comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) is a multidisciplinarysystematic approach using validated instruments and aiming at assessing nutritional status, physical functioning, co-morbidity, cognition, mood and polypharmacy in older patients. CGA is strongly recommended as part of the evaluation of older patients with cancer to identify frail patients for whom a tailored treatment might be imperative. As CGA can be very time-consuming, a screening tool is necessaryto select those patients in need of a CGA. In the literature the G8 was validated as a screening tool for older patients in oncology.
In this study, we tested the performance of the G8 as a screening tool in identifying older haematological patients who would benefit from CGA.
Patients, 70 years or older, with a new diagnosis of AML, intermediate or high grade MDS, MM or high grade NHL, referred to the haematology department of a tertiary hospital, were enrolled in the current study after providing a written consent. For each patient both the G8 and the geriatric assessment were completed before therapy was started.For the CGA validated scales were used, measuring nutritional status, physical functioning, hand grip strength, co-morbidity, cognition, mood, quality of life, polypharmacy and falls.Patients were considered frail when scoring abnormal for at least one CGA domain. ROC-curve analysis was used to determine inherent validity of G8. The study was approved by the local Ethical Committee.
Fifty patients were included. Median age was 76 years (range 70-87). The AUC-value of 0.949 (95% CI 0.889 – 1.00) indicates that the G8 tool has a high diagnostic accuracy to identify disabilities. At the cut-off score proposed in the literature (G8 ≤ 14), a sensitivity of 88.6% and a specificity of 100% was obtained. Overall, one or more impairments were detected by CGA in 88% of patients with a majority of patients scoring positive on (risk for) malnutrition. A comparison of our results with the literature is summarized in table 1.
Our results show that the G8, at the proposed cut-off of ≤14, can be used as a valid screening tool for older patients with aggressive haematological malignancies who would benefit from CGA.

Session: Quality of Life