ArticleSupportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer2014
Active treatment given in the last weeks of life: poor quality cancer care or justifiable behavior?
Article in Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeChemotherapy near the end of life is frequently considered as an indicator of inappropriate aggressiveness. We were interested in revising our prescribing habits and in analyzing the reasons for offering active treatment to patients with advanced cancer.
methodsWe examined the electronic medical records of all the cancer patients died in the Italian Region of Valle d'Aosta in a 1-year period and extracted all the available clinical data. From the 350 deceased patients, we selected the 141 to whom active treatment had been given during the natural history of their disease.
resultsAmong the patients undergoing any active treatment, the median number of days from the last administration to death was 75. Thirty-seven patients (26.2 %) had their last treatment administration during the 4 weeks before death and 20 (14.2 %) during the last 2 weeks. Fourteen patients (9.9 %) started treatment during the last 4 weeks. When the patients undergoing treatment in the last 4 weeks of life were compared with those subject to earlier withdrawal, only age and pretreatment were statistically significantly different. Most of the treatment choices were considered appropriate, and earlier treatment withdrawal could have been advised only in a minority of the cases.
conclusionsOur data were at the lower range when compared with the available literature. Uncertainties in prognostication and the possibility of response to treatment can justify chemotherapy prescriptions in selected cases. We suggest that the focus should move to the provision of adequate and timely supportive care.
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