Karnofsky Performance Status Scale
Determines ability of patient to tolerate chemotherapy.
For patients ≥ 16 years old. Useful to use over time to track disease progression.
Advice
The Karnofsky Performance Status Scale is clearly useful to clinicians, and either this or another functional status scale should be used to improve understanding of patient needs and abilities, as well as potentially to prognose.
Management
We are unaware of validated management algorithms using the Karnofsky Scale.
Critical Actions
The Karnofsky Scale and other performance scales should be used in the holistic assessment of cancer patients, though its accuracy as a prognostic tool in individual cases is not yet well proved.