ABSTRACT
Currently, prognostic estimates and decisionmaking in cancer care are based primarily on 5-year survival statistics published by the International Union Against Cancer (UICC)1, National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)2,3, American Joint Committee on Cancer4, and the American Cancer Society5. These data relate mortality to site and UICC/TNM staging, but do not account for patient-specific factors such as patient age, gender, comorbidity, and cancerrelated symptom severity (see Chapter 4). Since these factors are also independent predictors of survival6-20, an index that considers these factors in addition to tumor site and morphologic stage will be a better system for creating survival estimates.
