Intensity of palliative care and its impact on the aggressiveness of end-of-life care in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.

Abstract

9518 Background: Quality indicators have been developed to avoid overly aggressive care in patients with advanced cancer. Specialized palliative care (PC) may reduce overly aggressive care in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. Our objective was to examine the impact of the intensity of specialized PC (defined as a physician consultation focusing on PC needs, lasting at least 40 minutes) on (a) use of chemotherapy within 14 days of death; (b) more than one emergency department (ED) visit; (c) more than one hospitalization; and (d) at least one intensive care unit (ICU) admission, all within 30 days of death. Methods: A retrospective population-based cohort study using linked administrative databases in Ontario, Canada was conducted with patients diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer from Jan 1 2005 to Dec 31 2010. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed with the above quality indicators as the outcomes of interest and the intensity of PC visits as the exposure, adjusting for other variables (age, sex, comorbidity, rurality, and health region). Intensity of PC was defined in both absolute numbers (ie 0, 1, 2, 3+ visits) and rate of visits per month. Results: Of 6076 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, 5381 had died at last followup. 2816 (52%) received a PC consultation, 218 (4%) received chemotherapy near death, 234 (4%) patients went to the ICU near death, 993 (18%) had multiple ED visits near death, and 447 (8%) had multiple hospitalizations near death. 2565 (48%) had 0 PC visits, 513 (10%) had 1, 555 (10%) had 2, and 1748 (32%) had 3 or more. In multivariable analyses, having had one PC consultation was associated with a lower odds of ICU admission near death (odds ratio (OR) 0.25; 95% CI 0.13-0.46), multiple ED visits near death (OR 0.44; 95% CI 0.33-0.58), and multiple hospitalizations near death (OR 0.47; 95% CI 0.33-0.69). Two PC visits were associated with a lower OR for chemotherapy near death (OR 0.26; 95% CI 0.14-0.51). Using the monthly PC visit rate, a higher rate was associated with less aggressive care for each outcome. Conclusions: In patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, more intensive PC involvement is associated with less frequent overly aggressive care.