Abstract
Background: 30-day mortality (30DM) has been suggested as a clinical indicator of the avoidance of harm in palliative radiotherapy within the NHS, but no large-scale population-based studies exist. This large retrospective cohort study aims to investigate the factors that influence 30DM following palliative radiotherapy and consider its value as a clinical indicator.Methods: All radiotherapy episodes delivered in a large UK cancer centre between January 2004 and April 2011 were analysed. Patterns of palliative radiotherapy, 30DM and the variables affecting 30DM were assessed. The impact of these variables was assessed using logistic regression.Results: 14,972 palliative episodes were analysed. 6334 (42.3%) treatments were delivered to bone metastases, 2356 (15 7%) to the chest for lung cancer and 915 (5.7%) to the brain. Median treatment time was 1day (IQR 1–7). Overall 30DM was 12.3%. Factors having a significant impact upon 30DM were sex, primary diagnosis, treatment site and fractionation schedule (p<0.01).Conclusion: This is the first large-scale description of 30-day mortality for unselected adult palliative radiotherapy treatments. The observed differences in early mortality by fractionation support the use of this measure in assessing clinical decision making in palliative radiotherapy and require further study in other centres and health care systems.
Highlights
30-day mortality (30DM) has been suggested as a clinical indicator of the avoidance of harm in palliative radiotherapy within the NHS, but no large-scale population-based studies exist
The observed differences in early mortality by fractionation support the use of this measure in assessing clinical decision making in palliative radiotherapy and require further study in other centres and health care systems
This study investigated the rate of 30DM following palliative radiotherapy in a single cancer centre serving a population of 2.8 million over a 7 year period and considered its value as a clinical indicator
Summary
30-day mortality (30DM) has been suggested as a clinical indicator of the avoidance of harm in palliative radiotherapy within the NHS, but no large-scale population-based studies exist. This large retrospective cohort study aims to investigate the factors that influence 30DM following palliative radiotherapy and consider its value as a clinical indicator
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