Abstract
Background/Aim: Because aggressive oncological management just prior to death constitutes a substantial proportion of end-of-life (EOL) costs, we investigated patterns of EOL oncologic care for stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in USA to better determine at which point in the patient’s management new treatments were being initiated. Materials and Methods: The National Cancer Database was queried for stage IV NSCLC patients who received any cancer-directed therapy with known timing thereof. Results: A total of 281,990 stage IV NSCLC patients were analyzed. Of all patients, 10.8% commenced any first-course cancer therapy within four weeks of death, and 24.5% within eight weeks of death. Conclusion: 10-15% of stage IV NSCLC patients start cancer therapy within four weeks of death, and 25-30% within eight weeks. This represents a population for whom cancer therapy may not be required, which has implications on reducing EOL healthcare costs.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 3137-3140 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Anticancer Research |
Volume | 39 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 2019 |
Keywords
- Cost-effectiveness
- End-of-life
- Healthcare costs
- Non-small cell lung cancer
- Stage IV
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Cancer Research