Palliative Performance Status, Heart Rate and Respiratory Rate as Predictive Factors of Survival Time in Terminally Ill Cancer Patients

Abstract

To determine which symptoms, signs, and characteristics that define the patient's functional status predict the survival time in terminally ill cancer patients, a prospective longitudinal study was conducted with terminally ill cancer patients followed by a Home Care Support Team. Patients were followed up with at least weekly visits until death, collecting variables at each visit. A Cox multivariate regression analysis took into account all the follow-ups in the same patient. Ninety-eight patients were studied, and 250 evaluations were done. The mean age was 72 years. The median survival was 32 days. In the multivariate analysis, three independent variables were identified: Palliative Performance Score of 50 or under, heart rate of 100/minute or more, and respiratory rate of 24/minute or more. The variables that were found to be prognostic in our study are objective, easy, and quick to measure, and do not require that the professional have special training or experience. The prediction of survival time may be improved by considering these variables.

A Computer-assisted Model for Predicting Probability of Dying Within 7 Days of Hospice Admission in Patients with Terminal Cancer

“…A lower muscle power score correlated with a shorter predicted survival. (ii) For the basic vital signs of respiratory and heart rate, higher rates were significantly correlated with increased probability of mortality within 1 week, similar to an earlier study (33). (iii) Intervention tube, e.g.…”

Longitudinal Temporal and Probabilistic Prediction of Survival in a Cohort of Patients With Advanced Cancer

“…Clinician characteristics are described in Table 2. Nurses’ and doctors’ years of palliative care experience were similar ((median, IQR): 3 (1, 7) v/s 1 (1, 5), p = 0.26, rank sum test) (Table 2). …”

“…For patients and families, having prognostic information influences treatment preferences, decreases uncertainty and helps them to plan ahead for both personal and healthcare matters (1–3). For healthcare providers, particularly for oncologists, short term prognostication during the last few weeks of a patient’s life is relevant for clinical decision making because discharge planning, code status discussions, goals of care, hospice transfers and enrollment onto integrated care pathways are all dependent on prognosis (2, 4).…”

The palliative performance scale: examining its inter-rater reliability in an outpatient palliative radiation oncology clinic

“…The PPS scale was designed to assess a patient's functional level in order to assist healthcare providers in allocating resources, assessing medical care needs, and in patient prognosis [2,3]. The PPS has also been used to identify and track the needs of palliative care patients [2,4].…”

“…Most studies that have used the PPS to date have analyzed its value in terms of predicting patient survival [2,3,[6][7][8][9][10]. Some studies used only one individual to assess PPS on all patients [6,7], while others used several different raters of PPS [8,9].…”