Systematic versus on-demand early palliative care: A randomised clinical trial assessing quality of care and treatment aggressiveness near the end of life.

Abstract

AIM:

Early palliative care (EPC) in oncology has shown sparse evidence of a positive impact on patient outcomes, quality of care outcomes and costs.

PATIENTS AND METHODS:

Data for this secondary analysis were taken from a trial of 207 outpatients with metastatic pancreatic cancer randomly assigned to receive standard cancer care plus on-demand EPC (standard arm) or standard cancer care plus systematic EPC (interventional arm). After 20 months' follow-up, 149 (80%) had died. Outcome measures were frequency, type and timing of chemotherapy administration, use of resources, place of death and overall survival.

RESULTS:

Some indices of end-of-life (EoL) aggressiveness had a favourable impact from systematic EPC. Interventional arm patients showed higher use of hospice services: a significantly longer median and mean period of hospice care (P = 0.025 for both indexes) and a significantly higher median and mean number of hospice admissions (both P < 0.010). In the experimental arm, chemotherapy was performed in the last 30 days of life in a significantly inferior rate with respect to control arm: 18.7% versus 27.8% (adjusted P = 0.036). Other non-significant differences were seen in favour of experimental arm.

CONCLUSIONS:

Systematic EPC showed a significant impact on some indicators of EoL treatment aggressiveness. These data, reinforced by multiple non-significant differences in most of the other items, suggest that quality of care is improved by this approach. This study is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01996540).

• Authors: Marco Maltoni, Emanuela Scarpi, Monia Dall'Agata, Stefania Schiavon, Claudia Biasini, Carla Codecà, Chiara Maria Broglia, Elisabetta Sansoni, Roberto Bortolussi, Ferdinando Garetto, Luisa Fioretto, Maria Teresa Cattaneo, Alice Giacobino, Massimo Luzzani, Giovanna Luchena, Sara Alquati, Silvia Quadrini, Vittorina Zagonel, Luigi Cavanna, Daris Ferrari, Paolo Pedrazzoli, Giovanni Luca Frassineti, Antonella Galiano, Andrea Casadei Gardini, Manlio Monti, Oriana Nanni, Early Palliative Care Italian Study Group (EPCISG)
• Journal: European journal of cancer (Oxford, England : 1990) (Eur J Cancer) Vol. 69 Pg. 110-118 (12 2016) ISSN: 1879-0852 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 27821313 (Publication Type: Comparative Study, Journal Article, Randomized Controlled Trial)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• Antineoplastic Agents

Topics

• Adult
• Aged
• Aged, 80 and over
• Antineoplastic Agents (therapeutic use)
• Delivery of Health Care (methods)
• Female
• Hospice Care (statistics & numerical data)
• Humans
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Neoplasm Metastasis
• Palliative Care (methods)
• Pancreatic Neoplasms (pathology, therapy)
• Quality of Health Care
• Quality of Life
• Terminal Care (standards)
• Time Factors