Age, severe comorbidity and functional impairment independently contribute to poor survival in cancer patients.

Purpose: With the increasing number of elderly patients suffering from cancer, comorbidity and functional impairment become common problems in patients with cancer. Both comorbidity and functional impairment are associated with a shorter survival time in cancer patients, but their independent role has rarely been addressed before.

Methods: Within a prospective trial we recruited 427 cancer patients, irrespective of age and type of cancer, admitted as inpatients prior to the start of chemotherapy.

Co-morbidity and functional deficits independently contribute to quality of life before chemotherapy in elderly cancer patients.

Unlabelled: GOAL OF THE WORK: The quality of life (QoL) of patients with cancer is a major area of concern for both patients and their physicians. The independent contribution of functional impairment and co-morbidity to QoL is unclear.

Materials And Methods: We investigated initial global QoL in 477 patients: 195 cancer patients aged 60 years or older (group A), 152 cancer patients below the age of 60 years (group B), admitted as inpatients for chemotherapy initiation and 130 patients aged 60 years or older admitted for non-cancer-related disorders (group C).

Comorbidity in patients with cancer: prevalence and severity measured by cumulative illness rating scale.

Comorbidity is defined as the presence of one or more diseases in addition to an index disease. In elderly people, the number and severity of comorbidity increase with age. We report the comorbidity data of 536 patients treated as in-patients: 231 elderly cancer patients (ECP), 172 younger cancer patients (YCP) and 133 elderly patients admitted for non-cancer reasons (EMP).

Impairment in functional status and survival in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia.

Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is mainly affecting elderly patients. Elderly patients are increasingly affected by impairment of functional status (FS). FS is of prognostic relevance for survival in different tumours.