Dealing with prognostic uncertainty: the role of prognostic models and websites for patients with advanced cancer.

Purpose Of Review: To provide an updated overview of prognostic models in advanced cancer and highlight the role of prognostic calculators.

Recent Findings: In the advanced cancer setting, many important healthcare decisions are driven by a patient's prognosis. However, there is much uncertainty in formulating prognosis, particularly in the era of novel cancer therapeutics. Multiple prognostic models have been validated for patients seen by palliative care and have a life expectancy of a few months or less, such as the Palliative Performance Scale, Palliative Prognostic Score, Palliative Prognostic Index, Objective Prognostic Score, and Prognosis in Palliative Care Study Predictor. However, these models are seldom used in clinical practice because of challenges related to limited accuracy when applied individually and difficulties with model selection, computation, and interpretation. Online prognostic calculators emerge as tools to facilitate knowledge translation by overcoming the above challenges. For example, www.predictsurvival.com provides the output for seven prognostic indexes simultaneously based on 11 variables.

Summary: Prognostic models and prognostic websites are currently available to augment prognostication in the advanced cancer setting. Further studies are needed to examine their impact on prognostic accuracy, confidence, and clinical outcomes.