TABLE 5.

Major studies on geriatric assessment and chemotherapy outcomes in patients with gastrointestinal cancers

Author (year)	Study cohort	% of frail patients	Adverse events during chemotherapy	Patient survival according to frailty
Huang et al (2021)	Esophageal cancer Age: ≥20 years n = 87 Concurrent chemoradiotherapy	n = 41, 47%	↑ (Severe hematological adverse event, 63% vs 20%, P < 0.001; emergent room visiting, P = 0.009)	↓ OS: HR 2.1 (95%CI, 1.0‐4.4)
Jespersen et al (2021)	Metastatic gastrointestinal cancer (colorectal cancer, esophagus‐gastric cancer, biliary and pancreatic cancer, GIST) Age: ≥70 years n = 170 Palliative chemotherapy	n = 49, 29%	↑ [Functional decline, OR: 3.5 (95%CI, 1.0‐11.6, P = 0.04)]	↓ OS: HR 1.7 (95%CI, 1.2‐2.4)
Mima et al (2021)	High‐risk stage II and stage III colorectal cancer Age: ≥18 years n = 196 Adjuvant chemotherapy	n = 36, 18%	↑ (Severe adverse events during oxaliplatin‐based chemotherapy, 43% vs 9.4%, P = 0.036)	‐
Rittberg et al (2021)	Pancreatic cancer Age: ≥65 years n = 87 Palliative chemotherapy	n = 14, 16%	NS	NS
Ngo‐Huang et al (2019)	Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma Age: ≥18 years n = 95 Palliative chemotherapy	n = 29, 31%	NS	↓ (P = 0.003)

Note: ↑, higher incidence of adverse events during chemotherapy in frail patients; ↓, shorter overall survival in frail patients; −, not examined.

Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; HR, hazard ratio; NS, not significant (P > 0.05); OS, overall survival.