Recent studies have found pre-treatment scores of health related quality of life (HRQoL) independently predict length of survival in diverse populations of advanced cancer1. How long will I live? is a question frequently asked in the cancer setting. A recent cancer editorial suggested physicians not only rely on their biomedical data, but place greater emphasis on patient judgment on their own underlying health conditions, as measured by multidimensional measures of HRQoL2. Patients (n=142) with advanced cancer were identified consecutively as they presented to Radiation Oncology at Princess Alexandra, Brisbane, Australia over a seven-week period in late 2008. Caregivers (n=110) identified by patients were also included in the study. Socio-demographic and clinical data was collected together with measures of health status using the SF36 instrument. Patients observed over time, censored in late 2011 using the National Death Index, confirmed half remained alive. Almost one third of patients reported their global health was excellent/very good, a third that it was good, and 36% it was poor/very poor. Almost a fifth of caregivers reported poor health, 37% that it was good and 44 % that it was excellent/very good. Compared to a year ago, 56% of patients and 20% of caregivers reported worsening health, although 19% of patients reported improved health. While patient gender reports did not differ in the composite physical and mental health scores, females reported markedly lower scores on role emotional scores (52.2) compared to males (61.9). No marked gender differences were identified for caregivers. Analysis of composite scores by age confirmed normative trends of younger people (<44 years) having worse mental health for both patients (39.1) and caregivers (37.2) when compared with those over 75 yrs (46.0/46.3). Factors predicting patient length of survival will be examined and implications for care at the end of life will be specifically addressed.