When reading articles using the Charlson Comorbidity Score (Charlson ME et al J Chron Dis. 1987;40:373–383) to describe the comorbidity of a cohort of patients with cancer, for instance head neck cancer, I have the impression that some authors include the primary tumor into the calculation (Charlson's category "any tumor" with 2 points) and others not (only when the patients have at the same time or within last 5 years another type of cancer). The same problem I see with Charlson's category "solid metastatic tumor = 6 points). Some authors seem to include the primary tumor if metastatic (M+) into the calculation, others not.
What is correct?
Lieber Orlando,
da es ein Comorbidity Score ist, sollte die Grunderkrankung nicht hinzugerechnet werden.
Liebe Grüße und ein Frohes Neues Jahr
Christoph
Agree, this is a problem. Many times you end up deleting these points from your calculation, because it is coded inconsistently.
If you are a medical oncologist and the problem is wheighing comorbidities to evaluate the risk/benefit ratio of a certain intervention, you should not consider cancer as a comorbidity. Hope it helps.
Thank you. I will not include the primary tumor into the calculation and will explain this in the Methods section of the planned manuscript.
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