title: Does gynecologic malignancy predict likelihood of a tertiary palliative care unit hospital admission? A comparison of local, provincial and national death rates.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to determine whether the presence of gynecologic malignancies predicts the likelihood of a tertiary palliative care unit hospital admission.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, patients admitted to a specialized tertiary palliative care unit (TPCU) with gynecologic malignancies were compared to national and provincial death rates to determine if gynecologic malignancy predicts admission, and subsequent death, in a TPCU.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eighty-two gynecologic cancer patients were admitted to our TPCU over the 5- year study period. Out of all cancer deaths in the TPCU, death from ovarian cancer was 3.7% compared with 2.4% (p = 0.0068) of all cancer deaths in Manitoba and 2.3% (p = 0.0043) of all cancer deaths in Canada. Cervical cancer accounted for 1.7% of all our patients deaths compared with 0.7% (p = 0.0001) provincially and 0.6% (p = 0.0001) nationally. Uterine cancer deaths were not significantly different from the provincial and national death rates, whereas vulvar and fallopian cancers were too rare to allow for statistical analysis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Gynecologic cancers may be predictive of admission to a palliative care unit.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Section of Palliative Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
authors.forename: Jana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pilkey
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Section of Palliative Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
authors.forename: Chantale
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Demers
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Section of Palliative Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
authors.forename: Harvey
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chochinov
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, University of Manitoba, Victoria General Hospital Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
authors.forename: Nithya
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Venkatesan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D005833:Genital Neoplasms, Female / Q000401:mortality* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D008350:Manitoba / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D062606:Tertiary Care Centers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data