End-of-life outcomes of patients with advanced cancer enrolled in palliative care.

Authors

null

Andrew Lynch

Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center, Oakland, CA

Andrew Lynch , Liisa Lyon , Nirmala D. Ramalingam , Hannah Whitehead , Mina Chang , Raymond Liu

Organizations

Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center, Oakland, CA, Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Oakland, CA, Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, CA, Redwood City Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Redwood City, CA, Department of Medical Oncology, Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center, San Francisco, CA

Research Funding

No funding received
None.

Background: Palliative Care (PC) integration improves end-of-life (EOL) outcomes for patients with advanced cancer. However, there is limited evidence in real world settings of the impact of PC enrollment on EOL outcomes and the presence of racial disparities in PC enrollment. We sought to understand how PC enrollment differs between certain patient demographics and whether enrollment affects EOL outcomes in a large integrated health system. Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study included adults 18 years and older diagnosed with Stage IV solid cancers who died within 1 year of diagnosis at 21 cancer centers within Kaiser Permanente Northern California between 2018-2020. Demographics, clinical variables and EOL outcomes were compared by PC enrollment status. Categorical and continuous comparisons were made using Chi-squared and t-tests, respectively. Results: Among 3,575 patients diagnosed with stage IV solid cancers who died within 1 year of diagnosis (mean age 73.2), 52.8% were male; 8.2% were Black, 11.0% Hispanic, 12.3% Asian, and 67.7% non-Hispanic White. Most patients (93.0%) selected English as their preferred language. The most common cancer subtypes were thoracic (33.2%), upper GI (32.4%), and lower GI (10.6%). Overall, 1613 patients (45.1%) were enrolled in PC. Baseline demographics were similar between the PC and no-PC groups including gender (p = 0.58), race (p = 0.32), and preferred language (p = 0.23). There was a difference in mean age between groups (72.0 vs. 74.2, p < 0.01). Patients enrolled in PC were more likely to enroll in hospice (42.9% vs. 25.7%, p < 0.01, Table) and less likely to be hospitalized in the last 30 days of life (35.5% vs. 45.7%, p < 0.01, Table). Short hospice stays (< 3 days) were uncommon in both groups, and there was no statistically significant difference between groups (4.5% vs. 5.4%, p = 0.49, Table). There was no significant difference in the proportion of patients with multiple ED visits in the last 30 days of life between groups (21.0% vs. 21.8%, p = 0.56, Table). Conclusions: PC enrollment is associated with significant improvement in some EOL outcomes with higher rates of hospice enrollment and lower rates of hospitalization at the EOL. These outcomes were seen without racial disparities in PC enrollment. Future studies are needed to assess other outcomes related to goal-concordant care and to determine which patients benefit most from PC enrollment.

Comparison of quality EOL outcomes between those enrolled in PC and those not enrolled in PC.

Enrolled in PCNot enrolled in PCp-value
N=1613N=1962
n%n%
Hospice Utilization
Enrolled in hospice69242.950425.7<.01
Hospice stay < 3 days314.5275.40.49
Acute Care Utilization
>1 ED visit last 30 DOL*33921.042821.80.56
Hospitalization last 30 DOL*57235.589745.7<.01
*DOL = Days of Life

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Abstract Details

Meeting

2023 ASCO Annual Meeting

Session Type

Poster Session

Session Title

Symptoms and Survivorship

Track

Symptom Science and Palliative Care

Sub Track

End-of-Life Care

Citation

J Clin Oncol 41, 2023 (suppl 16; abstr 12030)

DOI

10.1200/JCO.2023.41.16_suppl.12030

Abstract #

12030

Poster Bd #

398

Abstract Disclosures

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