The aim of the current study was to describe the utility of the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score in assessing the severity of organ dysfunction in patients with cancer before admission to the intensive care unit. This was a prospective cohort study performed from January to October 2007. The Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score was recorded before admission to intensive care unit. Two hundred patients were included. The Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score of patients having survived the intensive care unit stay was 3.44 +/- 3.56 and of the patients no survivor's was 9.35 +/- 3.45. There were 89.5% of the patients who had 2 or more organ dysfunctions. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for score Sequential Organ Failure Assessment was 0.87. The mortality in the intensive care unit was 27.5%. The Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score was predictive for survival in intensive care unit when applied before admission.