Validation of 2 Prognostic Models in Hospitalized Patients With Advanced Hematological Malignancies in Japan

Patients with advanced hematological malignancies are less likely to be referred to specialist palliative care services compared with patients having solid tumors. It has been reported that one of the most important reasons for the lack of referral is difficulties in the prognostication of terminally ill patients with hematologic malignancies. The study objective was to evaluate the predictive accuracy of the Palliative Prognostic Index (PPI) and the prognostic model developed by Kripp et al in hospitalized patients under the care of a hematologist. Using clinical charts, we retrospectively calculated the above scores. We reviewed the records of 114 patients admitted to the hematology ward. The inclusion criterion was patient with disease considered incurable using standard treatments. The prognostic models were assessed according to the original reports. Using PPI cutoff points of 2 and 4, we divided the patients into 3 groups of significantly different survival times ( P < .01). Moreover, we confirmed the usefulness of predicting survival <3 and <6 weeks using PPI scores of 6 and 4 as cutoff points, respectively. When we classified patients according to the prognostic model of Kripp et al, the high-risk group survived significantly shorter times than the intermediate- and low-risk groups ( P < .001). However, there was no significant difference in survival between the intermediate- and low-risk groups. Use of these models might enable physicians to provide more appropriate end-of-life care and to refer patients to palliative care earlier.