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Introduction: Recent research in the field of cancer-related cognitive impairments (CRCI) has shown CRCI presentation prior to treatment initiation. Some have attributed these problems to worry and fatigue, whereas others have suggested an influence of age, IQ, and other psychosocial and medical factors., Methods: Patients (≥18 years) with a histologically confirmed diagnosis of a solid cancer or hematological malignancy, scheduled for a curative treatment, were evaluated with a baseline neuropsychological assessment including Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs). PROMs entailed distress, anxiety and depression, fatigue, and cognitive complaints. The neuropsychological assessment comprised several cognitive domains such as premorbid IQ, attention, processing speed, flexibility, verbal and visual episodic memory, and verbal fluency., Results: Cross-sectional data of 125 patients were collected. Patients had a mean age of 60.9 years (range: 30.0-85.0) and comprised primarily females (65.6%). Patients presented with cancer of following sites: breast (44.0%), digestive (28.8%), urological (11.2%), gynecologic (8.0%), hematologic malignancy (4.8%), and lung (3.2%). Patients presented with a premorbid IQ of 105.3 (range: 79.0-124.0). In 29.6% of patients, a CRCI was detected. Binary logistic regression analyses showed that a lower premorbid IQ (β = -.084, P < .01) and a higher level of fatigue (β = -.054, P < .05) predicted baseline CRCI. Premorbid IQ also predicted performance on individual cognitive domains. Some domains were also influenced by age, gender, having a breast cancer diagnosis, and an active treatment for hypertension., Conclusion: Premorbid IQ and fatigue are important predictors of baseline CRCI. Therefore, we advise researchers to implement a short IQ test when conducting clinical trials on CRCI., (Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Objective: We aimed to validate the Freund Clock Drawing Test (CDT), with its predefined cutoff score of ≤4, as a screening tool to detect elderly cancer patients in need of a more in-depth cognitive evaluation within a comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA)., Methods: Patients aged 70 years or older with a histologically confirmed diagnosis of cancer were evaluated with a full CGA, including CDT and Folstein Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) as gold standard. Validation of the Freund CDT was defined in terms of diagnostic accuracy of the test through receiver operating characteristics (ROC)-analysis. To accept the Freund CDT as a screening tool, we estimated that the area under the ROC curve (AUC) had to differ significantly from 0.70 with an AUC of at least 0.85., Results: Two hundred elderly cancer patients with a mean age of 79.0 years were included. Four patients were excluded from the analyses because of invalid results. Potential cognitive impairment (MMSE ≤23) was observed in 27.0% of patients. Based on of the AUC ± SE, the Freund CDT showed excellent diagnostic performance (0.95 ± 0.17). Furthermore, it provided excellent sensitivity (94.3%) and high specificity (87.4%)., Conclusions: Our results indicate that the Freund CDT can be used as an initial screening tool to detect elderly cancer patients in need of a more in-depth cognitive assessment within CGA, instead of the MMSE., (Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)