Researchers are exploring whether wearable personal activity monitors could provide doctors with a more complete picture of cancer patients’ well-being.by Brad Jones
WHEN HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS are faced with decisions about whether a therapy is likely to benefit a cancer patient, they often refer to a metric known as performance status—a measure of a patient’s general well-being and activity level. A patient’s performance status can offer insight into the likely outcome of treatment. For example,
research has shown that patients with poor performance status who receive chemotherapy have a reduced chance of survival and worse quality of life.
Performance status can be useful, but it’s not a perfect measure. The two most commonly used scales—the
Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS), which was first described in 1948, and the
Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG)
Performance Status, first published in 1982—both rely on patients to respond accurately to questions about their activity and on their doctors to correctly interpret this information and assign scores to the patients.
Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS), which was first described in 1948, and the
Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG)
Performance Status, first published in 1982—both rely on patients to respond accurately to questions about their activity and on their doctors to correctly interpret this information and assign scores to the patients.
Researchers are now suggesting that physical activity monitors could provide less subjective information on how patients function in their day-to-day lives. These monitors—which include Fitbits and Apple Watches—can provide information on activity including sleep quality, steps taken per day and heart rate.
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