Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 12, 2026

Voluntary Breath-hold Technique for Reducing Heart Dose in Left Breast Radiotherapy
Published on: July 3, 2014
PROGRAD - An observational study of the prognosis of inpatients evaluated for palliative radiotherapy
Andre Tsin Chih Chen1, Geovanne Pedro Mauro1, Flavia Gabrielli1
1Department of Radiation Oncology, Instituto do Cancer do Estado de Sao Paulo, Faculdade de Medicina da USP, Brazil.
Background And Purpose:
Low-and-middle-income countries have resource constraints and waiting lists for radiotherapy (RT). In this context, we sought to determine the survival of inpatients evaluated for palliative RT in a large referral cancer center in Brazil.
Material And Methods:
From November 2014 through December 2015, we enrolled 333 inpatients with palliative RT evaluation requests in this prospective observational study. We applied Palliative Prognostic Index (PPI) and Survival Prediction Score using Number of Risk Factors (NRF). Primary endpoint was overall survival. Secondary endpoints were survival by PPI and NRF. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02312791).
Results:
Median survival (MS) for the entire cohort was 73 days. PPI ≤2 had MS of 120 days; PPI 2.5-4 had MS of 55 days (HR 1.84; 95% CI, 1.07-3.16); PPI >4 had MS of 39 days (HR 3.45; 95% CI, 2.07-5.74) (p < .0001). NRF 0-1 had MS of 129 days; NRF 2 had MS of 73 days (HR 1.74; 95% CI 0.89-3.38); NRF 3 had MS of 40 days (HR 2.95; 95% CI, 1.50-5.78) (p < .0001).
Conclusion:
Inpatients with palliative RT requests seem to have an overall poor survival. PPI and NRF can define subgroups with different prognosis. This could help hospitals and healthcare systems to standardize criteria for prioritization and contribute for fairness.
More Related Videos
08:54Treatment of Liver Metastases Using an Internal Target Volume Method for Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy
Published on: May 8, 2018
07:32Author Spotlight: Investigating Immune Cell Dynamics in the Tumor Microenvironment — Challenges and Innovations in Cancer Prognosis
Published on: April 12, 2024
Related Concept Videos
Observational Studies
There are three types of observational studies – Prospective, retrospective, and cross-sectional.
Prospective Study
Prospective studies, also known as longitudinal or cohort studies, are carried out by collecting future data from groups sharing similar characteristics. One...
Naturalistic Observations
Observational Learning
Actor-Observer Effect
Data Collection by Observations
An astronomer viewing the motion and brightness of stars in the sky and recording the data is an example of observational data collection. A botanist recording...
Self-Evaluation: Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification