title: End-of-life hospital care for cancer patients: an update.
abstract: Cancer is the leading cause of death in Canada, and the number of new cases is expected to increase as the population ages and grows. This study examined the use of hospital services in the last month of life by adult cancer patients who died in Canadian acute care hospitals in fiscal year 2012-2013. Almost 25,000 Canadian cancer patients - excluding those in Quebec - died in acute care hospitals, representing approximately 45% of the estimated cancer deaths in 2012-2013. The proportion of in-hospital deaths varied across jurisdictions. Twenty-three percent of these patients were admitted to acute care multiple times in their last 28 days of life, with a higher percentage for rural (29%) compared to urban (21%) patients. Relatively few patients used intensive care units or received inpatient chemotherapy in their last 14 days of life.
authors.affiliation: Senior analyst in Health Reports at the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), in Toronto, Ontario. He is responsible for performing analyses, providing methodological support to projects and writing reports.
authors.forename: Alexey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dudevich
authors.affiliation: Senior analyst in Health Reports at CIHI, in Toronto, Ontario. She is responsible for performing analyses and providing methodological support to projects.
authors.forename: Allie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Manager of Health Reports at CIHI, in Toronto, Ontario. She oversees the development and production of a variety of CIHI's analytical reports.
authors.forename: Cheryl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gula
authors.affiliation: Team lead in Health Reports at CIHI, in Toronto, Ontario. He leads and coordinates the design and development of several CIHI reports.
authors.forename: Josh
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fagbemi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002170:Canada; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult