Performance status assessment in cancer patients

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Clinical Assessment
• Biostatistics

Background:

• Performance status assessment is crucial in oncology for treatment decisions and prognosis.
• Karnofsky performance status (KPS) and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) are widely used scales.
• Evaluating the reliability and validity of these scales, especially patient self-assessment, is important for clinical utility.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the validity and reliability of Karnofsky performance status (KPS) and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) scales.
• To compare physician assessments with patient self-assessments.
• To determine if patient self-evaluation offers a valuable and reliable performance status assessment.

Main Methods:

• 100 consecutive cancer patients participated in the study.
• Performance status was assessed independently by two physicians and by the patients themselves using KPS and ECOG scales.
• Kendall's correlation coefficient was used to analyze the agreement between assessments.

Main Results:

• High inter-physician reliability was found for both KPS (0.76) and ECOG (0.75).
• Significant correlations were observed between physician and patient assessments for KPS (0.65) and ECOG (0.59).
• Patient self-assessments demonstrated considerable agreement with physician evaluations.

Conclusions:

• Both KPS and ECOG scales demonstrate good reliability when used by physicians.
• Patient self-assessment of performance status using KPS and ECOG scales is a reliable and valid method.
• Patient self-evaluation can be a valuable addition to performance status assessment in clinical oncology.