Unplanned hospital admissions in senior cancer patients receiving chemotherapy: Preliminary evaluation of the use of pre-chemotherapy assessment tools in daily care

Abstract

8th and 9th Revisions (ICD-8 and 9) of the International Classification of Diseases and as C61 in the 10th Revision (ICD-10). Breast cancer was coded as 174 (ICD-8 and 9) and C50 (ICD-10), colorectal cancer as 153 and 154 (ICD-8 and 9) and C18–C21 (ICD 10), and lung cancer as 162 (ICD-8 and 9) and C33–C34 (ICD 10). Data was analysed according to 5 year age bands: 65–69, 70–74, 75–79, 80–84 and 85 and over, and these are presented separately for each sex and tumour. Crude ageand European standardised incidence rates were also calculated. Results: For all 4 cancers with the exception of lung cancer in men, there were increases in both the incidence rates and number of cancer registrations. Number of registrations of prostate cancer increased by 433%, breast cancer 143%, colorectal cancer 137% (males) and 61% (females) and lung cancer 278% (females). The increase in both incidence rates and number of cancer registrations were especially seen in the 80 and over group in breast, colorectal and lung cancer. Conclusions: The increase in number of diagnoses from 1971 to 2009 for these four cancers represents an additional 52,000 cancers per year in patients aged 65 and over. This is likely to increase further with the ageing of the population.