A description of cancer directed therapy within 14 days of death in a community cancer institute.

Abstract

73 Background: It is recommend that no more than 10% of patients receive chemotherapy within 14 days of death. Aggressive end of life interventions like chemotherapy and hospitalization are used as measures of quality. However, cancer care now includes immunotherapy and targeted therapies. It is therefore important to understand how all cancer directed treatments are utilized at end of life, to better define the group of patients for whom they are indicated. Therefore, we sought to describe the people in our institution who received cancer directed therapy in the last two weeks of life. Methods: Adult patients who received cancer directed therapy for any malignancy in a single community cancer institute and died from July 2016-April 2017 were included. Retrospective data collection included clinical cancer stage and type, ECOG performance status (ECOG), last cancer therapy, date of death, dates of treatment, type of treatment, treatment goal, demographics and utilization of ED, hospital, palliative care and hospice. Results: A total of 218 patients were included. 13.7% (30/218) received cancer directed therapy within 14 days of death. Of those patients, only four had ECOG of 3, while 26 had ECOG 0-2. The average duration from treatment to death in this group was eight days, with one patient dying on the day of treatment. The average duration from treatment to death for all patients was 166 days (median 59). 20 patients receiving cancer directed therapy at end of life received chemotherapy, while the remaining 10 received targeted therapy (8) or immunotherapy (2). 40% (8/20) of patients in the chemotherapy group died in hospital as did 50% (5/10) of the remaining patients. Most patients in the overall sample (83%) were being treated with palliative intent. 20% (6/30) of the patients who died within 14 days of treatment were being treated with curative intent. Conclusions: Recommendations regarding cancer directed treatment near end of life need to include non-chemotherapy treatments such as immunotherapy and targeted treatments. Although a small sample size, our data suggest that patients on these treatments receive aggressive end of life care at a similar frequency as those who receive chemotherapy.