Retrospective assessment of objective prognostic score in terminally ill Korean patients with cancer

Am J Hosp Palliat Care. 2014 Jun;31(4):435-40. doi: 10.1177/1049909113492557. Epub 2013 Jun 6.

Abstract

We conducted a retrospective study by reviewing the medical records of 104 patients to assess the usefulness of the objective prognostic score (OPS) in an independent population of Korea. The median survival time (±standard error) of the high OPS group (≥3) was 9.0 ± 1.31 days and that of the low OPS group (<3) was 26.0 ± 3.3 days. The former was significantly shorter than the latter (P < .001). Only delirium (hazard ratio 1.751, P = .032) was related to shorter survival time independent of the OPS. This study demonstrates that the OPS is a valid and useful prognostic tool for predicting survival in terminally ill Korean patients with cancer, and that inclusion of delirium into the OPS may improve its prognostic value.

Keywords: assessment; cancer; palliative care; prognostic score; survival; validation.

MeSH terms

  • Female
  • Humans
  • Kaplan-Meier Estimate
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neoplasms / diagnosis*
  • Neoplasms / mortality
  • Neoplasms / pathology
  • Prognosis
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Republic of Korea / epidemiology
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Survival Analysis