Prospective Cohort Study of Palliative Chemotherapy скачать в хорошем качестве

Prospective Cohort Study of Palliative Chemotherapy

Read the open access research: http://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g1219 Chemotherapy is used to treat metastatic cancer, with the goal of palliating symptoms and improving survival. Between 20% and 50% of patients with incurable cancers receive chemotherapy within 30 days of death, despite growing concerns that it may not be effective. Recently, the American Society for Clinical Oncology identified end of life chemotherapy as one of the "top five" practices that could improve patients' care and reduce costs, if stopped. Deciding when to discontinue chemotherapy is often challenging, however, given limited data on whether chemotherapy is helpful or harmful in the final months of life. In this study, the authors set out to determine whether the receipt of chemotherapy among terminally ill cancer patients months before death was associated with patients' subsequent intensive medical care and place of death.