title: Program of palliative cancer care--our experience.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Annually more than 27,000 persons die of cancer in the Czech Republic and the overall incidence of malignancies is still increasing. These data shows the need for affordable and good follow-up care especially for patients without any cancer treatment due to irreversible progression of tumor. Currently the outpatient palliative cancer care gets more into the forefront. Prerequisite for a well working outpatient palliative care is cooperation with general practitioners and home health care agencies. The purpose of the so called program of palliative cancer care is to guide a patient in palliative cancer care and to improve the cooperation among health care providers.
  
  
  METHODS
  During the period from January 2008 to October 2010 we evaluated in patient without any oncology treatment due to irreversible progression of tumor.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In palliative outpatient clinic we treated 446 patients, 119 of them received home care services with average length of 27.8 days. 77 patients died at home, 51 in health facilities and 41 in inpatient hospice care.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We present pilot study focusing on outpatient palliative cancer care which shows the real benefit from early indication of palliative cancer care. This type of care allows patients to stay as long as possible at home among their close relatives.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Oncology and Radiotherapy, Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic. slansiva@fnhk.cz
authors.forename: Iva
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Slánská
authors.forename: Jindrich
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kopecký
authors.forename: Stanislav
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Filip
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018153:Czech Republic; D005260:Female; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017051:Hospice Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D016522:Oncology Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D055815:Young Adult