Preoperative Frailty Assessed Comprehensively by a Questionnaire Predicts a Poor Survival Following Curative Resection of Gastric Cancer.

Background/Aim: The concept of frailty has been attracting attention as a comprehensive indicator of the various effects of aging, but no conclusion has been reached on how to evaluate it. The present study investigated the adverse effect of preoperative frailty on short- and long-term outcomes in patients with gastric cancer using a questionnaire about frailty. Patients and Methods: One hundred and twenty-five patients with pathological stage (p Stage) I/II/III who underwent radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer at the Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Osaka, Japan from April 2015 to December 2016 were enrolled in this study. The frailty index (FI) was calculated by dividing the total score of 50 questions consisting of 1 point per question by 50. The study used multiple logistic regression analysis with 5-year overall survival (OS) as the endpoint to create a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve to determine the cut-off point for the FI. The short- and long-term outcomes of the frail and non-frail groups were then compared, and prognostic factors for OS were examined. Results: Regarding the short-term outcomes, the postoperative complication rates did not differ significantly between the two groups. Regarding the 5-year OS rates of the patients with p Stages II/III, the outcomes in the frail group were significantly poorer than those in the non-frail group. In the multivariate analysis of OS, frailty was independently associated with unfavorable outcomes in patients with p Stages II/III gastric cancer. Conclusion: Frailty evaluation in this study may be useful in predicting long-term prognosis in patients undergoing surgical treatment for advanced gastric cancer.