Machine Learning for Predicting Postoperative Functional Disability and Mortality Among Older Patients With Cancer: Retrospective Cohort Study

The CatBoost model demonstrated good performance in predicting postoperative outcomes for older patients with cancer using routinely available preoperative factors. The robustness of these findings was supported by the identical top influential factors between the CatBoost and XGBoost models. This model could support surgical decision-making while considering postoperative quality of life and care burden, with potential for implementation through electronic health records.