Does gynecologic malignancy predict likelihood of a tertiary palliative care unit hospital admission? A comparison of local, provincial and national death rates

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the presence of gynecologic malignancies predicts the likelihood of a tertiary palliative care unit hospital admission. In this study, patients admitted to a specialized tertiary palliative care unit (TPCU) with gynecologic malignancies were compared to national and provincial death rates to determine if gynecologic malignancy predicts admission, and subsequent death, in a TPCU. Eighty-two gynecologic cancer patients were admitted to our TPCU over the 5- year study period. Out of all cancer deaths in the TPCU, death from ovarian cancer was 3.7% compared with 2.4% (p = 0.0068) of all cancer deaths in Manitoba and 2.3% (p = 0.0043) of all cancer deaths in Canada. Cervical cancer accounted for 1.7% of all our patients deaths compared with 0.7% (p = 0.0001) provincially and 0.6% (p = 0.0001) nationally. Uterine cancer deaths were not significantly different from the provincial and national death rates, whereas vulvar and fallopian cancers were too rare to allow for statistical analysis. Gynecologic cancers may be predictive of admission to a palliative care unit.