The JAMA Network explains that there are a wide variety of factors that can influence a person’s ability to respond to cancer treatments, including mesothelioma. Some of those factors include, for example, the person’s age, the stage of their cancer, and the person’s other underlying conditions. While these factors certainly play a role in the way health care providers consider a patient’s ability to undergo certain treatments and to respond to those treatments, one of the best factors to use is a patient’s performance status. Indeed. The JAMA Network says “PS is one of the most important variables,” and a patient’s PS “is more important than a patient’s actual age in predicting how a patient is likely to do.”