In recent years there has been much discussion about the usefulness of specific palliative cancer therapy for patients with far advanced solid tumors. The indication for the use of palliative therapy is based on the need for a correct control of symptoms, acting as much as possible on the evolution of the disease. It is important to avoid treatments whose toxicity compromises quality of life and thus careful evaluation must be made by both oncologists and radiotherapists before administering specific therapies to patients with a short life expectancy. The Palliative Care Group of IOR has activated an observational study to validate the predictive capacity of the PaP Score (Pirovano M. et al., IPSM 1999) in a setting of advanced cancer patients who are candidates for Palliative Chemotherapy (PC). Inclusion criteria are: histological diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer; gastrointestinal tumors; metastatic visceral or bone disease; eligibility for second- or third-line PC. From January 2001 to June 2003, 124 consecutive patients were registered from 8 oncology centres. The median survival of the 122 evaluable patients was 22 weeks. PaP Score classified 102 patients in group A and 20 in group B, with 25 and 7 weeks' median survival and a 96% and 75% probability of 30-day survival, respectively (Log-rank=36, pB<0.001). None of the patients eligible for PC were classified in the PaP Score group C, which indicates the worst prognosis. From this preliminary analysis, the PaP Score would seem to be a valid instrument to identify patients to submit to PC.