Patterns of acute hospital and specialist palliative care use among people with non-curative upper gastrointestinal cancer

• Published in: Supportive care in cancer 2024-07, Vol.32 (7), p.432, Article 432
• Main Authors: Boland, E. G., Tay, K. T., Khamis, A., Murtagh, F. E. M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Female; Gastrointestinal cancer; Gastrointestinal Neoplasms - therapy; Hospitalization - statistics & numerical data; Humans; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Nursing; Nursing Research; Oncology; Pain Medicine; Palliative care; Palliative Care - methods; Palliative Care - statistics & numerical data; Patient admissions; Rehabilitation Medicine; Socioeconomic factors; Socioeconomic status; United Kingdom
• ISSN: 0941-4355; 1433-7339; 1433-7339
• DOI: 10.1007/s00520-024-08624-x

Purpose Upper gastrointestinal (GI) cancers contribute to 16.7% of UK cancer deaths. These patients make high use of acute hospital services, but detail about palliative care use is lacking. We aimed to determine the patterns of use of acute hospital and hospital specialist palliative care services in patients with advanced non-curative upper GI cancer. Methods We conducted a service evaluation of hospital use and palliative care for all patients with non-curative upper GI cancer seen in one large hospital, using routinely collected data (2019–2022). We report and characterise hospital admissions and palliative care within the study time period, using descriptive statistics, and multivariable Poisson regression to estimate the unadjusted and adjusted incidence rate ratio of hospital admissions. Results The total with non-curative upper GI cancer was 960. 86.7% had at least one hospital admission, with 1239 admissions in total. Patients had a higher risk of admission to hospital if: aged ≤ 65 (IRR for 66–75 years 0.71, IRR 76–85 years 0.68; IRR > 85 years 0.53; p