ArticleCancers2016
Antibiotic Treatment in End-of-Life Cancer Patients-A Retrospective Observational Study at a Palliative Care Center in Sweden.
Article in Cancers, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 72 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pulmonary infections in an acute palliative care unit.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026Observational
- Article
- Prevalence and Symptomatic Benefit of Antibiotic Use in End-of-Life Patients in Saudi Arabia: An Observational Cohort Study.Journal of palliative care · 2026Observational
- Comparison of Broad-Spectrum Antibiotic Use According to Hospice Utilization Among Patients with Cancer at the End of Life in South Korea: A Nationwide Analysis.Journal of hospice and palliative care · 2026Article
- Factors Influencing Antimicrobial Choice and Duration During the Last Month of Life in Hospitalized Patients.Open forum infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Benefits and Harms of Antibiotic Use in End-of-Life Patients: Retrospective Study in Palliative Care.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Adaptive immune responses against common viruses are sustained and functional in end-of-life patients.iScience · 2025Article
- End-of-Life Infections and the Dilemma of Emerging Antimicrobial Resistance: A Scoping Review.Infection & chemotherapy · 2025Review
- Current trends in antimicrobial use and the role of antimicrobial stewardship in palliative oncology: a narrative review.BMC palliative care · 2025Review
- Association Between Antibiotic Withdrawal and End-of-Life Comfort in Patients with Advanced Cancer and Suspected Infections: A Multicenter Retrospective Cohort Study.Palliative medicine reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Safety and Tolerability of Antimicrobial Agents in the Older Patient.Drugs & aging · 2023Review
- Perceptions and Reality of Antimicrobial Prescribing During the Transition to Comfort Measures Only at an Academic Medical Center.Open forum infectious diseases · 2023Article
- Antibiotic Treatment in End Stage Cancer Patients; Advantages and Disadvantages.Cancer informatics · 2023Article
- Article
- The Use of Antibiotics in Hospice and Palliative Care Settings.Journal of hospice and palliative care · 2022Article
- Association of Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment With Inpatient Antimicrobial Use at End of Life in Patients With Cancer.Open forum infectious diseases · 2021Article
- Early palliative care of non-small cell lung cancer in the context of immunotherapy.Oncology letters · 2020Review
- Variations in Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment Program across the Nation: Environmental Scan.Journal of palliative medicine · 2019Article
- Does special education in palliative medicine make a difference in end-of-life decision-making?BMC palliative care · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe aim of this study was to elucidate whether palliative cancer patients benefit from antibiotic treatment in the last two weeks of life when an infection is suspected.
methodWe reviewed medical records from 160 deceased palliative cancer patients that had been included in previous studies on vitamin D and infections. Patients treated with antibiotics during the last two weeks of life were identified and net effects of treatment (symptom relief) and possible adverse events were extracted from medical records.
resultsSeventy-nine patients (49%) had been treated with antibiotics during the last two weeks in life. In 37% (n = 29), the treatment resulted in evident symptom relief and among these 50% had a positive bacterial culture, 43% had a negative culture and in 7% no culture was taken. Among the patients with no or unknown effect of antibiotics, 50% had a positive culture. When the indication for antibiotic treatment was to avoid or treat sepsis, symptom relief was achieved in 50% of the patients (n = 19). Only 4% (n = 3) of the patients experienced adverse events of the treatment (diarrhea, nausea).
conclusionsTreating infections with antibiotics in the last weeks of life may improve the quality of life for palliative cancer patients, especially if sepsis is suspected or confirmed. According to our results, the beneficial effects outweigh the potentially negative outcomes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.