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

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.