Palliative care outpatients in a German comprehensive cancer center-identifying indicators for early and late referral.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Despite that early integration of palliative care is recommended in advanced cancer patients, referrals to outpatient specialised palliative care (SPC) frequently occur late. Well-defined referral criteria are still missing. We analysed indicators associated with early (ER) and late referral (LR) to SPC of an high volume outpatient unit of a comprehensive cancer center.

Methods

Characteristics, laboratory parameters and symptom burden of 281 patients at first SPC referral were analysed. Timing of referral was categorized as early, intermediate and late (> 12, 3-12 and < 3 months before death). Ordinal logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors related to referral timing. Kruskal-Wallis test was used to determine symptom severity and laboratory paramete

SUBMITTER: Muller S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9743520 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature