ArticlePloS one2015
Hospital admission of cancer patients: avoidable practice or necessary care?
Article in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 61 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
61 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Cancer patient distress and health service use is linked with carer distress: evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026Pooled it
- Understanding oncologic emergencies and related emergency department visits and hospitalizations: a systematic review.BMC emergency medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Challenges on the provision of palliative care for patients with cancer in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review of reviews.BMC palliative care · 2020Pooled it
- Pilot randomized trial of an electronic symptom monitoring intervention for hospitalized patients with cancer.Annals of oncology : official journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology · 2019Trial
- Trial
- Telehealth service use in people with cancer compared to people without cancer: analysis of Patient Experience Surveys in Australia.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026Article
- Development and validation of a clinical prediction model for hospitalization after emergency department admission in patients with cancer.ESMO real world data and digital oncology · 2025Article
- Prevalence of primary and secondary hypertension among hospitalized patients with cancer in the United States.Chronic illness · 2025Article
- The Economic Cost of Nursing Care of Palliative Patients in the Emergency Department.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- " I can't do it anymore": a qualitative study on the emergence of crisis in outpatient palliative care-the perspective of family caregivers.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
- Patterns of mental health service utilisation in people with cancer compared with people without cancer: analysis of the Australian National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing.Journal of cancer survivorship : research and practice · 2025Article
- Article
- Serious Gaming for Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting in Older Adults With Cancer: Protocol for a Randomized Clinical Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2024Article
- Trends in chemotherapy use for early-stage breast cancer from 2006 to 2019.Breast cancer research : BCR · 2024Article
- Is alcohol and psychoactive medication use associated with excess hospital length-of-stay and admission frequency? A cross-sectional, observational study.BMC emergency medicine · 2024Observational
- Why is end-of-life inpatient cost high among cancer patients? A prospective cohort study.Cancer medicine · 2024Article
- Identification and Characterization of Avoidable Hospital Admissions in Patients With Lung Cancer.Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network : JNCCN · 2023Article
- Shared decision making with Oncologists and Palliative care specialists (SOP) model help advanced pancreatic cancer patients reaching goal concordant care: A prospective cohort study.Cancer medicine · 2023Article
- Integration of Remote Symptom and Biometric Monitoring Into the Care of Adult Patients With Cancer Receiving Chemotherapy-A Decentralized Feasibility Pilot Study.JCO oncology practice · 2023Article
- Article
1 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
15 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCancer patients are frequently admitted to hospital due to acute conditions or refractory symptoms. This occurs through the emergency departments and requires medical oncologists to take an active role. The use of acute-care hospital increases in the last months of life. PATIENTS AND
methodsWe aimed to describe the admissions to a medical oncology inpatient service within a 16-month period with respect to patients and tumor characteristics, and the outcome of the hospital stay.
results672 admissions of 454 patients were analysed. The majority of admissions were urgent (74.1%), and were due to uncontrolled symptoms (79.6%). Among the chief complaints, dyspnoea occurred in 15.7%, pain in 15.2%, and neurological symptoms in 14.5%. The majority of the hospitalizations resulted in discharge to home (60.6%); in 26.5% the patient died and in 11.0% was transferred to a hospice. Admissions due to symptoms correlated with a longer hospital stay and a higher incidence of in-hospital death.
conclusionWe suggest that hospital use is not necessarily a sign of inappropriately aggressive care: inpatient care is probably an unavoidable step in the cancer trajectory. Optimization of inpatient supportive procedures should be a specific task of modern medical oncology.
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