Palliative care is a key component of daily practice in oncology: descriptive study of hospitalisation events at an oncology treatment centre.
OBJECTIVE
The impact that palliative care services have had on admission to oncology services has not been well-defined. This retrospective study was undertaken in the oncology service of a general hospital where there is also a palliative care service.


METHODS
The medical records of 397 patients (542 events) admitted during a period of 6 months at a single centre were reviewed.


RESULTS
The main final diagnoses were tumour progression, infection and chemotherapy administration. Seventeen percent of patients died during hospitalisation. The decision to withdraw active treatment was taken during this time in 11% of patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Key therapeutic decisions are commonly made during hospitalisation events of patients with cancer. Our results suggest that oncologists still take care of patients at the end of life, although this may highly depend on models of health care and admission criteria.
Service of Oncology, Hospital La Paz, 261-28046 Madrid, Spain. eespinosa00@terra.es
Enrique
E
Espinosa
Alvaro
A
Pinto
Pilar
P
Zamora
Jaime
J
Feliu
Beatriz
B
Martínez
Manuel
M
González Barón
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008485:Medical Audit; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000451:nursing*; D016522:Oncology Service, Hospital; D010166:Palliative Care; D055815:Young Adult