Daily activities: exploring their spectrum and prognostic impact in older, chemotherapy-treated lung cancer patients

Abstract

Performance scores predict benefits and toxicities from chemotherapy. Among older cancer patients, however, many investigators have empirically called for a detailed assessment of activities of daily living, claiming that the utility of performance scores is limited in this older population. This study's goals were therefore twofold: (1) to explore the predictive capability of an activities questionnaire and of performance score with respect to chemotherapy's toxicity and efficacy; (2) to describe the daily activities of older patients as they undergo chemotherapy for incurable metastatic lung cancer.