An electronic application for rapidly calculating Charlson comorbidity score.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Uncertainty regarding comorbid illness, and ability to tolerate aggressive therapy has led to minimal enrollment of elderly cancer patients into clinical trials and often substandard treatment. Increasingly, comorbid illness scales have proven useful in identifying subgroups of elderly patients who are more likely to tolerate and benefit from aggressive therapy. Unfortunately, the use of such scales has yet to be widely integrated into either clinical practice or clinical trials research.

Methods

This article reviews evidence for the validity of the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) in oncology and provides a Microsoft Excel (MS Excel) Macro for the rapid and accurate calculation of CCI score. The interaction of comorbidity and malignant disease and the validation

SUBMITTER: Hall WH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC545968 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature