Potentially Inappropriate Medications Linked to Frailty at Cancer Diagnosis
FRIDAY, Sept. 12, 2025 -- For patients with newly diagnosed cancer, an increasing number of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs), as identified by the Geriatric Oncology Potentially Inappropriate Medications (GO-PIMs) scale, is associated with an increased risk for frailty at diagnosis, according to a study published in the September issue of the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.
Jennifer La, Ph.D., from Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues examined the ability of GO-PIMs to identify high-risk medications and their impact on patients with both solid and liquid tumors in a retrospective cohort study using data from the national Veterans Affairs Cancer Registry and electronic health records. The association of PIMs with baseline frailty and with unplanned hospitalization and mortality was examined during follow-up.
The study included 388,113 patients with newly diagnosed cancer (median age, 69.3 years). The researchers found that GO-PIMS were prevalent, with 38 percent of patients receiving at least one GO-PIM. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, opioids, benzodiazepines, and corticosteroids were the most common classes of PIMs (12.0, 10.4, 9.2, and 9.2 percent, respectively). After adjusting for all covariates, each additional GO-PIM was associated with a 66 percent increase in the odds of being mildly or moderate-to-severely frail at diagnosis (ordinal regression adjusted odds ratio, 1.66). After adjusting for frailty and all covariates, each additional GO-PIM was associated with a higher risk for unplanned hospitalization and death (Cox regression adjusted hazard ratios, 1.08 and 1.07, respectively).
"High-risk medications identified as PIMs should be reviewed and optimized in patients with cancer," the authors write. "Although this medication optimization has been shown to be effective, the greatest barrier to implementation is limited time and staff in busy oncology settings."
Several authors disclosed ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
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