Indicator for Predicting Survival in Terminal Cancer Patients

 

Group with survival < 3 weeks - one or more of the following:

(1) Palliative Performance Scale 10 or 20

(2) dyspnea at rest

(3) delirium

 

Group with survival < 6 weeks - one or more of the following:

(1) Palliative Performance Scale 10 or 20

(2) dyspnea at rest

(3) delirium

(4) edema

 

The Palliative Performance Scale is a modification of the Karnofsky Performance Scale and is described in Chapter 1.

 

NOTE: Something may have been lost in the translation, since I cannot identify the need for the 2 groups. One possibility is that the < 3 week group has all 3 of the findings, while the < 6 week group has at least 1 of the findings.

 

Performance:

• sensitivity: 75-85%

• specificity: 72-84%