Cancer Rehabilitation Evaluation System (CARES)

Man Walking Alone Among Trees

This site has been created for the convenience of researchers, clinicians, and practitioners in the field of oncology who are interested in understanding, documenting and assessing the needs of patients with cancer utilizing one form of the Cancer Rehabilitation Evaluation System also known as the CARES.

By way of introduction the CARES has been also known under a different name in some of the literature, the Cancer Inventory of Problem Situations or CIPS. These assessment tools have almost the same contents. The CARES has four forms; a long form in a clinical or research version and a short form in a clinical or research version. What differentiates the long form and short forms are the number of items.

The long form has 139 items and the short-form 59, although not all items apply to every person who completes it. For example there are subsections for people in significant relationships, those who are dating, those on chemotherapy, radiation therapy and sexually active as examples of situations where subsections would apply or not. If these sections do not apply, the tool becomes shorter. What differentiates the clinical version from the research version is whether the tool has a second column in which the patient is asked to indicate whether the item/problem is one in which they would like help with or not. Clearly, this could be used in research work as well depending on the nature of the research questions being addressed.

These tools provide a way to document the number, type and severity of difficulties that an individual may be facing as a result of the cancer diagnosis. It can be scored to provide a global score as well as scores for numbers of problems and severity of problems all of which can be used to track the impact of cancer, treatments or interventions overtime. It has demonstrated abilities to measure quality of life issues and the impact of cancer, its treatments and various interventions may be having on day-to day living as well as the needs of the patient.

On this site, we are making it publicly available for use. We only ask that when it is used, that credit is properly given to the tools and its original authors.

The manual and the patient profile scoring sheets are also located on this site which provides all the information that you need to score it.

It is our hope that this will make it easier for researchers and clinicians to utilize this instrument.

Of note, the original author, Cyndie Coscarelli Schag has changed her name throughout the years, thus publications dating back to the early 1980’s when this tool was first published on may reference these different names. The original author currently uses the name Anne Coscarelli, but the work has been published under additional names including, Cyndie Coscarelli Schag, C. Anne Coscarelli Schag, and Anne Coscarelli Schag. Excuse the confusion that the name changes of the instrument and the author may create as you research its history.

Forms to Download

Related Publications

  1. Quality of Life in adult Survivors of Lung, Colon and Prostate Cancer
    Schag CA, Ganz PA, Wing DS, Sim MS, Lee JJ.
    Qual Life Res. 1994 Apr;3(2):127-41.
    PMID: 8044158 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
  2. Predicting Psychosocial Risk in Patients with Breast Cancer
    Ganz PA, Hirji K, Sim MS, Schag CA, Fred C, Polinsky ML.
    Med Care. 1993 May;31(5):419-31.
    PMID: 8501990 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
  3. Characteristics of Women at Risk for Psychosocial Distress in the Year After Breast Cancer
    Schag CA, Ganz PA, Polinsky ML, Fred C, Hirji K, Petersen L.
    J Clin Oncol. 1993 Apr;11(4):783-93.
    PMID: 8478672 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
  4. Exploring the Influence of Multiple Variables on the Relationship of Age to Quality of Life in Women with Breast Cancer
    Ganz PA, Lee JJ, Sim S, Polinsky ML, Schag CA.
    J Clin Epidemiol. 1992 May;45(5):473-85.
    PMID: 1588353 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
  5. Breast Conservation Versus Mastectomy. Is There a Difference in Psychological adjustment or Quality of Life in the Year After Surgery?
    Ganz PA, Schag AC, Lee JJ, Polinsky ML, Tan SJ.
    Cancer. 1992 Apr 1;69(7):1729-38.
    PMID: 1551058 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
  6. The CARES: A Generic Measure of Health-Related Quality of Life for Patients with Cancer
    Ganz PA, Schag CA, Lee JJ, Sim MS.
    Qual Life Res. 1992 Feb;1(1):19-29.
    PMID: 1301111 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
  7. CAncer Rehabilitation Evaluation System: Short Form (CARES-SF). A Cancer-Specific Rehabilitation and Quality of Life Instrument
    Schag CA, Ganz PA, Heinrich RL.
    Cancer. 1991 Sep 15;68(6):1406-13.
    PMID: 1873793 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
  8. Assessing Problems of Cancer Patients: Psychometric Properties of the Cancer Inventory of Problem Situations
    Schag CA, Heinrich RL, Aadland RL, Ganz PA.
    Health Psychol. 1990;9(1):83-102.
    PMID: 2323331 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
  9. Assessing the Quality of Life: A Study in Newly-Diagnosed Breast Cancer Patients
    Ganz PA, Schag CA, Cheng HL.
    J Clin Epidemiol. 1990;43(1):75-86.
    PMID: 2319284 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
  10. Rehabilitation of Patients with Primary Breast Cancer: Assessing the Impact of Adjuvant Therapy
    Ganz PA, Polinsky ML, Schag CA, Heinrich RL.
    Recent Results Cancer Res. 1989;115:244-54. No abstract available.
    PMID: 2623333 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
  11. Rehabilitation Needs and Breast Cancer: The First Month After Primary Therapy
    Ganz PA, Schag CC, Polinsky ML, Heinrich RL, Flack VF.
    Breast Cancer Res Treat. 1987 Dec;10(3):243-53.
    PMID: 3447644 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
  12. The Psychosocial Impact of Cancer on the Elderly: A Comparison with Younger Patients
    Ganz PA, Schag CC, Heinrich RL.
    J Am Geriatr Soc. 1985 Jun;33(6):429-35.
    PMID: 3998352 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
  13. Living with Cancer: The Cancer Inventory of Problem Situations
    Heinrich RL, Schag CC, Ganz PA.
    J Clin Psychol. 1984 Jul;40(4):972-80.
    PMID: 6480863 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
  14. Karnofsky Performance Status Revisited: Reliability, Validity, and Guidelines
    Schag CC, Heinrich RL, Ganz PA.
    J Clin Oncol. 1984 Mar;2(3):187-93.
    PMID: 6699671 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
  15. Breast Cancer Survivors: Psychosocial Concerns and Quality of Life
    Ganz PA, Coscarelli A, Fred C, Kahn B, Polinsky ML, Petersen L.
    Breast Cancer Res Treat. 1996;38(2):183-99.
    PMID: 8861837 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
  16. Translation and Validation of a Quality of Life Instrument for Hispanic American Cancer Patients: Methodological Considerations
    Canales S, Ganz PA, Coscarelli CA.
    Qual Life Res. 1995 Feb;4(1):3-11.
    PMID: 7711688 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
  17. First Year After Head and Neck Cancer: Quality of Life
    Gritz ER, Carmack CL, de Moor C, Coscarelli A, Schacherer CW, Meyers EG, Abemayor E.
    J Clin Oncol. 1999 Jan;17(1):352-60.
    PMID: 10458254 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
  18. Development of a Comprehensive Quality of Life Measurement Tool: CARES
    Schag CA, Heinrich RL.
    Oncology (Williston Park). 1990 May;4(5):135-8;discussion 147. Review.
    PMID: 2143399 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
  19. Helping Patients Cope with Cancer
    Meyerowitz BE, Heinrich RL, Schag CA.
    Oncology (Williston Park). 1989 Nov;3(11):120-9; discussion 129-31.
    PMID: 2641309 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
  20. Anxiety in Medical Situations: Adult Cancer Patients
    Schag CA, Heinrich RL.
    J Clin Psychol. 1989 Jan;45(1):20-7.
    PMID: 2925881 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
  21. Stress and Activity Management: Group Treatment for Cancer Patients and Spouses
    Heinrich RL, Schag CC.
    J Consult Clin Psychol. 1985 Aug;53(4):439-46. No abstract available.
    PMID: 4031198 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
  22. The Chronic Illness Problem Inventory: Problem-Oriented Psychosocial Assessment of Patients with Chronic Illness
    Kames LD, Naliboff BD, Heinrich RL, Schag CC.
    Int J Psychiatry Med. 1984;14(1):65-75.
    PMID: 6735596 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]