FRAILTY AND CANCER SCREENING RATES IN OLDER ADULTS

Objective: It has been suggested that the decision of when to implement cancer screening should be based on the frailty status or life expectancy in older adults. There is a limited number of studies reporting cancer screening prevalence in older adults. The aim of this study was to examine the patterns of colorectal, breast, prostate, and lung cancer screening in geriatric outpatients with different frailty statuses. Material and Methods: Data from our geriatric outpatient clinic from September 2017 to May 2018 was examined retrospectively and included first time admission outpatients aged 60 years or older. The screening situations for colorectal, breast, prostate, and lung cancer (in at risk groups) were obtained from analysis of comprehensive geriatric assessment forms. Frailty was assessed using the FRAIL-scale. Participants were subsequently classified as frail or not frail. Results: One hundred and fifty seven participants (73%) were female and 57 (27%) were male with a mean age of 76 +/- 7.3 years. Of the 203 participants who underwent frailty screening 17 (8.4%) were fit, 55 (27.1%) were prefrail, 131 (64.5%) were frail. Of the participants without frailty, 8.3%, 10.4% ve 33.3% had received recent cancer screening for colorectal, breast, or prostate cancer, respectively. Of the frail participants, 5.3%, 4% and 33.3% had received recent cancer screening for colorectal, breast, or prostate cancer respectively. No participants had been screened for lung cancer. Conclusion: We observed that the prevalences of colorectal and breast cancer screening are lower in all groups. However the prevalence of prostate cancer screening was higher even though it is not routinely recommended for screening. Nobody was screened for lung cancer.