Evaluation of Elderly Patients with Hematological Malignancies By Two Different Geriatric Risk Scoring Systems: G8 and Flemish Version of the Triage Risk Screening Tool (fTRST)

Background: High burden of patients with hematological malignancies are diagnosed >65 years old. Since then, geriatric interventions can improve quality of life, compliance to therapy and overall survival. Geriatric screening is the best tool to access patients' prognosis. In this study, our aim is to identify our geriatric patients with different geriatric scoring systems to evaluate their prognostic value for overall survival (OS).

Patients and Methods: We included 127 patients (age>65 years) with hematological malignancies and assessed two geriatric screening tools, G8 and Flemish version of the Triage Risk Screening Tool (fTRST) during a hospital visit at diagnosis or follow-up. G8 is considered normal if the score is >14, high risk patients in fTRST are defined as patients scored ≥ 2. OS was described using Kaplan-Meier plots, and comparisons were made using log-rank and Wilcoxon rank sum tests.

Results: From 127 patients, 50 patients (39%) were newly diagnosed. The patient characteristics were defined in table. Patients under follow-up received median of 2 lines of treatment (range, 1-5); 11 patients (14%) treated with radiotherapy, 15 patients (19%) underwent autologous stem cell transplantation. Abnormal G8 score was detected in 120 patients (94%). High fTRST score was present in 72 patients (57%). Both abnormal G8 score and high fTRST score were detected more likely in follow-up patients (65% vs 40%, p=0.005).There was no statistical difference in 5-year OS in terms of abnormal G8 score or high fTRST score alone. In patients with both abnormal G8 and high fTRST scores had statistically significant lower 5-year OS compared to normal G8 and/or low fTRST scores (57% vs 85%, p=0.048) (figure).

Conclusion: In investigation of two screening tools-G8 and fTRST, statistically significant survival advantage was shown if both scores were normal.

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