Administration of chemotherapy with palliative intent in the last 30 days of life: The balance between palliation and chemotherapy

摘要: Background Appropriately timed cessation of chemotherapy is an important aspect good quality palliative care. There wide variation in the reported rates administration within last 30 days life. Aims To identify predictors death receiving chemotherapy, and to propose a standard definition by which oncologists cancer centres can be compared. Methods Patients who received at regional centre its rural outreach unit between 2009 2011 were included. An adjusted logistic regression model, including all variables, was fit chemotherapy. Results Over 3-year period, 1131 patients 138 (12%) died chemotherapy. Predictors were: less than contact with care (odds ratio 3.30 (95% confidence interval 2.04–5.34), P < 0.001) male gender 2.02 1.24–3.31), = 0.0049), but treating clinician, tumour chemoresponsiveness, age, body mass index survival from initial diagnosis not. Conclusion Patients life more likely have shorter duration team involvement. In this study, observed rate range published data. It recommended that used benchmark medical oncology individual oncologists, allow comparison over time.