A study published in Cancer indicated that quality of life is determined, at least in part, by weight loss, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (ECOG-PS), and the systemic inflammatory response in patients with advanced cancer.
By identifying early predictors of poor quality of life, researchers may allow for the identification of patients who may benefit from early referral to palliative and supportive care, which has previously been found to improve quality of life.
“For the first time to our knowledge, the current study reports a comprehensive analysis of tumor and host factors and their effect on [quality of life] in a large cohort of patients with incurable disease,” the authors wrote.
In this multicenter study of adult patients with advanced cancer conducted in Ireland and the UK between 2011 and 2016, researchers collected data from patients at…