High-flow oxygen (HFO) and bilevel positive airway pressure (BiPAP) for refractory dyspnea in patients with advanced cancer: A randomized controlled trial.

Abstract

9611 Background: Dyspnea is one of the most common and distressing symptoms in cancer patients. Few treatments are evidence based because research in this area is difficult. The role of HFO and BiPAP in the palliation of severe refractory dyspnea has not been well characterized.We examined the changes in dyspnea, physiologic parameters and adverse effects in patients receiving HFO and BiPAP. Methods: In this phase II “pick the winner” randomized trial, we assigned hospitalized advanced cancer patients with refractory dyspnea to either HFO or BiPAP for 2 hours. We assessed dyspnea with the numeric rating scale (NRS) and modified Borg scale (MBS) before and after intervention. We also documented the vital signs, transcutaneous carbon dioxide and adverse effects. We used the sign rank test to compare before and after each intervention, and the Wilcoxon rank sum test to compare between arms with intention-to-treat analysis. Results: Thirty patients were enrolled (1:1 ratio) and 23 (77%) completed the assigned intervention. The median baseline dyspnea NRS was 7/10 (Q1-Q3 5-8), despite being on supplemental oxygen and opioids. Both HFO and BiPAP were associated with significant improvement in dyspnea after 2 h, with no differences detected between arms (Table). We observed prolonged dyspnea relief in 6 patients 1 h after completion of the study intervention. HFO improved oxygen saturation. No adverse effects were observed. Conclusions: HFO and BiPAP alleviated dyspnea, improved physiologic parameters and were safe. Our results justify larger randomized controlled trials to confirm these findings. Clinical trial information: NCT01518140. [Table: see text]