Measures of Morbidity: Functional Assessment and Cytokines

With the increasing use of progenitor cell transplantation in older patients defining predictors of outcomes in this patient population will be important to guarantee the appropriate use of this procedure. Comorbidity assessments are not sufficiently sensitive in determining outcomes, functional assessment tools such as those used in rehabilitation medicine could be useful not only in predicting outcomes, but as another dimension of quality of life. These tools have rarely been used in the setting of hematopoietic progenitor cell transplantation. In this session we will review current trends in predicting transplant outcomes, the use of functional assesment tools in predicting morbidity post medical interventions, as well as potential strategies of improving functional status using growth hormone agonists.