Assessment of the integration between oncology and palliative care in advanced stage cancer patients

Purpose Chemotherapy is indicated for patients with metastatic malignancy in order to improve quality of life and in some cases to increase survival. However, the greatest difficulty regarding the choice of treatment is to evaluate the clinical benefit and intrinsic toxicity of each procedure. The b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Supportive care in cancer 2017-06, Vol.25 (6), p.1837-1843
Main Authors: dos-Anjos, Caroline S., Candido, Priscila B. M., Rosa, Victor D. L., Costa, Rodrigo E., Neves, Fernanda R. C. B., Junqueira-Santos, André F., De-Carlo, Marysia M. R. P., Peria, Fernanda M., Lima, Nereida K. C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Cancer
Cancer metastasis
Cancer patients
Care and treatment
Chemotherapy
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Male
Medical Oncology - methods
Medical research
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Metastasis
Middle Aged
Neoplasms - mortality
Neoplasms - therapy
Nursing
Nursing Research
Oncology
Original Article
Pain Medicine
Palliative care
Palliative Care - methods
Pilot Projects
Quality of Life - psychology
Rehabilitation Medicine
Retrospective Studies
Risk Factors
Survival Rate
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Summary:Purpose Chemotherapy is indicated for patients with metastatic malignancy in order to improve quality of life and in some cases to increase survival. However, the greatest difficulty regarding the choice of treatment is to evaluate the clinical benefit and intrinsic toxicity of each procedure. The best strategy is the integration between oncology and palliative care, which is still mostly insufficient. The main objective of this study was to assess time to palliative care referral for cancer patients with advanced local or metastatic disease and to investigate the impact of covariates on this relationship. Methods A retrospective, cross-sectional, observational pilot study was conducted on 286 patients divided into two groups, one consisting of metastatic patients and the other of non-metastatic patients at diagnosis. Karnofsky Performance Scale (KPS), setting, and survival time were evaluated. Results One hundred eighteen patients (41.25%) were metastatic and 168 (58.74%) had locally advanced malignant disease. The median time of metastatic patient referral to the group of palliative care (GPC) was 5.3 months, with 39.8% referred earlier and 60.2% referred late (≥3 months). 60.2% of metastatic patients were referred to the GPC with a KPS
ISSN:0941-4355
1433-7339
DOI:10.1007/s00520-017-3588-9