ArticleSupportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer2024
Characteristics of patients who die in an acute palliative care unit.
Article in Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 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
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Last Days of Life: A Systematic Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Comprehensive Palliative Care in Patients with Lung Cancer Admitted to an Acute Palliative Care Unit.Cancers · 2026Article
- When tomorrow starts without me.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimTo evaluate the characteristics of patients with advanced cancer who die in an acute palliative care unit (APCU), and the risk factors for death in APCU.
methodsAdult consecutive patients with advanced cancer admitted to the APCU in a period of 13 months were prospectively assessed. At APCU admission, epidemiologic data, characteristics of admission, cachexia, being on-off anticancer treatment, and Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) and MDAS (Memorial Delirium Assessment Scale) were assessed. Patients who died in APCU were extrapolated from the entire sample. A similar random sample of patients who were discharged alive in the same study period, matched for age and gender, was selected for comparison.
resultsFifty-four patients (12%) died in APCU. Statistical differences between died and discharged patients were found in MDAS (p = < 0.0005), admission for cognitive/clinical decline (p = < 0.0005), referral from specialistic home palliative care (p < 0.0005), cachexia (p = 0.018), being off cancer treatment (p = < 0.0005), and symptom burden (total ESAS) (p = 0.002). At the multivariate analysis, independent factors associated with dying in APCU were MDAS (p = 0.006), referral from specialistic home palliative care (p = 0.025), being off cancer treatment (p = 0.002), pain and dyspnea intensity (< 0.05 and p = 0.038, respectively), and total ESAS (p = 0.025).
conclusionMortality risk in APCU is associated with home palliative care referral, high symptom burden, and being off-cancer treatment. More proactive and timely end-of-life care is needed for these patients.
Indexed as
Identifiers
39708176What 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.