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Besides the organ classifications described in the previous page, clinicians have also elaborated classifications for the patient’s general status before any treatment.

As every clinician indeed knows, a patient with a poor general status will have a poorer tolerance to their various treatments than a patient with a good general status. This can be observed for:

• surgery,
  
• radiotherapy,
  
• chemotherapy,
  
• and all other treatment.

Two general scales are currently used:

• the performance status according to Karnofsky (a famous cancer physician from New York city),
  
• the ECOG performance status (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group).

However, other scales can be used, for instance before anaesthesia (ASA scales) or in palliative care (see the specific chapter).