Within palliative oncology, there is a growing literature focused on identifying
predictors of survival of advanced cancer patients that might aid physicians
in their prognostic estimates for similar patients.
Multiple prospective and
retrospective cohort studies have consistently identified two broad classes
of patient survival predictors:
Performance status
Clinical signs and symptoms
New research seeks to increase the predictive yield of these clinical factors
through models of increasing complexity that integrate these elements with each
other and with new elements into easy-to-use composite measures.
