Trial Information

Investigator Initiated Trial: Prospective Study of Clinical Predictors of Survival in Cancer Patients With Metastatic Solid Tumors

Patients with incurable cancer frequently ask their doctors for an estimate of survival.
Such estimates can assist patients in making decisions about how best to spend their time
and energy. Survival estimates are also required when considering patients with incurable
cancer for experimental treatments. However, such estimates are difficult to make. There
is some data to suggest that a simple clinical measure, the performance status, combined
with a laboratory blood test, the LDH, may assist in making the survival estimate more
realistic. This study is designed to test if this is the case, using patients with
metastatic lung, breast, colorectal, prostate, or pancreatic cancer or patients with cancer
of unknown primary who have exhausted life-prolonging therapy. These patients will be asked
to consent to entering this study. Their performance status will be assessed by the
Karnofsky and WHO scales, they will be asked to have their blood tested for LDH and they and
their doctor will be asked to estimate their survival. After study entry they will be
allowed to receive palliative radiotherapy, surgery or systemic therapy as indicated
including protocol treatment. After study entry, the only other requirement is that the date
of the patients death be reported so that the duration of survival can be compared with the
doctors and patients estimate and correlated with the performance status and LDH.