The Art and Science of Predicting Prognosis in Inpatient Cancer Rehabilitation

This symposium will discuss the art and science of predicting prognosis in cancer survivors admitted to an inpatient rehabilitation facility. Patients with complications from cancer and its treatment tend to have high rates of acute care transfer and early death in the inpatient rehabilitation setting. The rate of acute care transfer from inpatient rehabilitation is reported to be as high at 35%. While the rate of early death is not as well studied, it is known that nearly 1 in 200 cancer patients will die during their rehabilitation stay and 36.9% of patients admitted to IRF with brain tumors died within 6 months. Strategies to predict prognosis, even in the absence of specific input from the oncology team will be discussed in detail including identification and interpretation of key historical information and performance status. How to leverage this information into a compassionate, effective, and meaningful rehabilitation program will be detailed.