Determination of an adequate screening tool for identification of vulnerable elderly head and neck cancer patients treated with radio(chemo)therapy

Objectives: We evaluated two proposed screening tools, the Vulnerable Elders Survey-13 (VES-13) and the G8, to identify patients who could benefit from a comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA). Materials and Methods: All consecutive patients aged ≥65 years with primary head and neck cancer were assessed with VES-13, G8 and CGA. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC)-analysis was used to determine diagnostic performance of both screening instruments. Results: Fifty-one patients were recruited, of which 39.2%, 66.7% and 68.6%, were defined vulnerable when evaluated with VES-13, G8 and CGA, respectively. The area under the ROC-curves (AUC±SE) of VES-13 (0.889±0.045) and G8 (0.909±0.040) did not significantly differ (P=0.7083). A sensitivity and specificity of respectively 57.1% and 100% for VES-13 (cut-off ≥3) and 85.7% and 75.0% for G8 (cut-off ≤14) was obtained. The combined score “VES-13+(maximum-G8)” (AUC=0.971±0.019) showed a superior AUC to G8 (P=0.0242) and VES-13 (P=0.0237). The most optimal cut-off score of 5 for the combined test resulted in a sensitivity of 91.4% and a specificity of 93.8%. Positive and negative predictive values were 100% and 51.6%, 88.2% and 70.6%, and 97.0% and 83.3% for the VES-13, G8 and combined test respectively. Conclusion: Both tools were found to have good diagnostic performance. However, at the proposed cut-off scores, our data suggest the G8 as the most optimal screening tool. Moreover, the combined tool could represent an interesting alternative.