ArticleClinical and translational radiation oncology2021
Single-institution analysis of the prevalence, indications and outcomes of end-of-life radiotherapy.
Article in Clinical and translational radiation oncology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Stereotactic radiotherapy for patients with bone metastases: a selected group with low rate of radiation treatment during the last month of life?Radiation oncology (London, England) · 2024Article
- Validation and extension of the METSSS score in a metastatic cancer patient cohort after palliative radiotherapy within the last phase of life.Clinical and translational radiation oncology · 2022Article
- Shortened Palliative Radiotherapy Results in a Lower Rate of Treatment During the Last Month of Life.Cureus · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRadiotherapy plays an important role for symptom control in advanced stage cancer patients. Yet patients need to be carefully selected, and its use and benefits must be weighed against time spent under treatment and patient priorities in the last phase of life. In this study, we assess prevalence, indications and outcomes of radiotherapy close to death.
methodsWe screened all radiotherapy treatments performed at the Department of Radiation Oncology of the University Hospital Zurich between January 2010 and December 2019 to identify those which occurred near patients' end-of-life. Analyzed data was extracted from the database of the Comprehensive Cancer Center Zurich, the treatment planning system Aria® and the electronical medical records system KISIM®.
resultsWithin 60 days of death, 377 radiotherapy courses were prescribed to 280 patients, which constitutes 3.4% of all radiotherapy courses administered over the last decade at our department. Within 60-31, 30-8, and 7-0 days to death 164, 159, and 54 radiotherapy courses were prescribed, respectively. The most frequent treatment sites were brain (N = 122, 32%) and bone (N = 119, 32%), and there was no statistically significant difference in treatment site between the three sub-groups. The most common regimen was 10x3Gy (N = 130, 35%) in all three sub-groups (p = 0.23). Radiotherapy finished more than one week before death was associated with high completion rates (>80%) and treatment benefit (>55%).
conclusionPatient selection and survival prognostication remains challenging for radiation oncologists. While radiotherapy achieved high completion and success rates until one week before death, treatment within one week of death should be restricted to carefully selected patients or avoided altogether.
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