Abstract: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the POMS used in China. 289 cancer patients in fourhospitals were randomly assigned to one of either experimental or control group, measured three times(pre-, on- and post-treatment), and one time for normal people. The major results were:there werehigher levels of homogeneity reliability and clinical validity tested by three ways, in all scales of POMS,especially sensitive to the effect of psychological intervention. But, the discriminant validity of POMSwas not strong, and the sensitivity to the changes of mood states was weaker in normal people than incancer patients. These results supported the POMS as a reliable, responsive, and valid measure of themood states, and a sensitive indicator to psychological intervention of cancer patients in China.

Key words: POMS, reliability, validity, cancer patient