Retrospective analysis shows frailty increases in-hospital mortality and costs in older adults with colorectal cancer, indicating significant implications for patient management.
Background Impact of frailty on prognosis in patients with metastatic and non-metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) was studied. Methods Patients aged ≥60 years with CRC were identified in Nationwide Inpatient Sample database and analyzed retrospectively. Frailty was defined when Hospital Frailty Risk Score ≥5. Patients were grouped and matched by metastatic status. Logistic and linear regression were used to assess association between frailty and in-hospital outcomes. Results After matching, 99,017 metastatic and 418,435 non-metastatic CRC were included. Frailty was significantly associated with increased in-hospital mortality (metastatic: OR = 1.10, 95% CI 1.05–1.17; non-metastatic: aOR = 1.05, 95% CI 1.00–1.10), prolonged length of stay (metastatic: OR = 1.30, 95% CI 1.26–1.34; non-metastatic: aOR = 1.37, 95% CI 1.34–1.39), and discharge to long-term care (metastatic: OR = 1.67, 95% CI 1.62–1.73; non-metastatic: aOR = 2.10, 95% CI 2.07–2.14). Frailty was also associated with higher total hospital costs, with additional $3,750 (95% CI $2940–$4560) in metastatic CRC and $1920 (95% CI $1480–$2360) in non-metastatic CRC. Conclusions Frailty is an independent predictor of adverse outcomes among older patients with CRC, regardless of metastatic status.
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Cheng et al. (2026) studied this question.
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