An evaluation of cancer aging research group (CARG) score to predict chemotherapy toxicity in older Iranian patients with cancer

Abstract

Abstract Objectives This study aimed to evaluate the predictive value of the Cancer Aging Research Group (CARG) in Iranian patients as a representative of the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region population. Methods This prospective longitudinal study involved patients 65 years and older starting a new cytotoxic chemotherapy regimen. We did general (including Karnofsky performance status, KPS) and CARG-based assessments before chemotherapy. Chemotherapy toxicities were recorded during chemotherapy courses. The predictive values of CARG and KPS were evaluated using the area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC-ROC). Chemotherapy toxicities were sub-analyzed per hematologic and nonhematologic types. Results Chemotherapy-related toxicity was reported in 23.6 % of patients. The corresponding area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC-ROC) was 0.56 (95 %CI, 0.40–0.69) for total toxicity, 0.67 (95 % CI, 0.48–0.78) for hematologic toxicity, and 0.39 (95 %CI, 0.21–0.66) for nonhematologic toxicity. Conclusions CARG model had an acceptable ability to predict hematologic toxicities; however, its efficacy for total and nonhematologic toxicities was limited.