First referral to an integrated onco-palliative care program: a retrospective analysis of its timing.

BACKGROUND: Palliative care (PC) referral is recommended early in the course of advanced cancer. This study aims to describe, in an integrated onco-palliative care program (IOPC), patient's profile when first referred to this program, timing of this referral and its impact on the trajectory of care at end-of-life. METHODS: The IOPC combined the weekly onco-palliative meeting (OPM) dedicated to patients with incurable cancer, and/or the clinical evaluation by the PC team. Oncologists can refer to the multidisciplinary board of the OPM the patients for whom goals and organization of care need to be discussed. We analyzed all patients first referred at OPM in 2011-2013. We defined the index of precocity (IP), as the ratio of the time from first referral to death by the time from diagnosis of incurability to death, ranging from 0 (late referral) to 1 (early referral). RESULTS: Of the 416 patients included, 57% presented with lung, urothelial cancers, or sarcoma. At first referral to IOPC, 76% were receiving antitumoral treatment, 63% were outpatients, 56% had a performance status ≤2 and 46% had a serum albumin level > 35 g/l. The median [1st-3rd quartile] IP was 0.39 [0.16-0.72], ranging between 0.53 [0.20-0.79] (earliest referral, i.e. close to diagnosis of incurability, for lung cancer) to 0.16 [0.07-0.56] (latest referral, i.e. close to death relatively to length of metastatic disease, for prostate cancer). Among 367 decedents, 42 (13%) received antitumoral treatment within 14 days before death, and 157 (43%) died in PC units. CONCLUSIONS: The IOPC is an effective organization to enable early integration of PC and decrease aggressiveness of care near the end-of life. The IP is a useful tool to model the timing of referral to IOPC, while taking into account each cancer types and therapeutic advances.

Vinorelbine and oxaliplatin in stage IV nonsmall cell lung cancer patients unfit for cisplatin: a single-center experience.

Many patients with stage IV nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are unfit for cisplatin-based chemotherapy because of poor performance status, impaired renal function or severe comorbidity. We documented the feasibility of a combination of weekly vinorelbine and biweekly oxaliplatin in a population of stage IV NSCLC patients unable to receive cisplatin. Fifty-five chemo-naive patients (40 males, median age 60 years, range 43-84) were treated on an outpatient basis, and received every 2 weeks: vinorelbine 25 mg/m intravenously on day 1 and 60 mg/m orally on day 8, and oxaliplatin 85 mg/m intravenously on day 1. Patients were considered unfit for cisplatin because of performance status > or =2 (30 patients), impaired renal function (17 patients) or severe comorbidities (eight patients). Twenty-two patients (40%) had two or more metastatic sites, and 14 (25%) had central nervous system metastases. A total of 288 cycles were given (median per patient: 4, range 1-11). The planned dose intensity of vinorelbine was administered in 65% of patients. One complete and 13 partial responses were observed, providing an objective response rate of 26% (95% confidence interval: 14.4-37.6). The median progression-free survival and overall survival were 3.5 months and 9.5 months, respectively. The 1-year survival rate was 24% (95% confidence interval: 12.7-35.3). The main grade 3/4 toxicities were: neutropenia (15 patients, 27%), anaemia (12 patients, 22%) and peripheral neuropathy (eight patients, 15%). Three patients (5.5%) experienced febrile neutropenia. In a nonselected NSCLC patient population, the vinorelbine-oxaliplatin doublet had clinical activity in the same range as cisplatin-based combinations. This doublet allows combining a platinum derivative with a sustained dose intensity of vinorelbine in unfit patients.

[Use of a standard format to describe the activity of hospital-based palliative care team: a lever for improving end of life care]. / Suivi d'indicateurs dans le bilan d'activité d'une équipe mobile de soins palliatifs: un levier pour l'amélioration des pratiques.

INTRODUCTION: Early integrated palliative care is recommended in patients with incurable disease. Despite their development, hospital-based palliative care teams (PCT) are introduced late in the course of standard oncology care. The objective of this study is to describe the activity of an academic hospital-based PCT, using a standard format, which integrates indicators of early introduction and quality of end of life care, thus allowing a systematic analysis of its practice. METHODS: The annual activity of the PCT is described from 2007 to 2012. Data are collected for each patient prospectively by the team: reasons for referral and activities of PCT, performance status and chemotherapy at the time of first referral, visit to emergency and admission to ICU. RESULTS: The number of patients referred to the PCT increased from 337 patients in 2007 to 539 in 2012, among whom 90% were cancer patients, 84% at metastatic stage. Relief of symptoms was the most frequent reason for referral. In 2012, 280 (64%) patients were receiving chemotherapy and 41% had a PS≤2 at the time of first referral. Half patients died each year (270 in 2012); 17% of these received chemotherapy in their last 14 days of life, 3% visited emergency room twice and 13% were admitted in ICU, once during their last month of life, 48% died in hospice or at home. CONCLUSION: The use of a standard format to describe the activity of hospital-based PCTs, the timing of their introduction and the quality of care is feasible. The generalization of this format for monitoring to assess the curative medicine interface/palliative could be a lever for improving the integration of palliative care.

Effect of integrated palliative care on the quality of end-of-life care: retrospective analysis of 521 cancer patients.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of oncologist awareness of palliative care (PC), the intervention of the PC team (PCT) and multidisciplinary decision-making on three quality indicators of end-of-life (EOL) care. SETTING: Cochin Academic Hospital, Paris, 2007-2008. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: A 521 decedent case series study nested in a cohort of 735 metastatic cancer patients previously treated with chemotherapy. Indicators were location of death, number of emergency room (ER) visits in last month of life and chemotherapy administration in last 14 days of life. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to estimate associations between indicators and oncologist's awareness of PC, PCT intervention and case discussions at weekly onco-palliative meetings (OPMs). RESULTS: 58 (11%) patients died at home, 45 (9%) in an intensive care unit or ER, and 253 (49%) in an acute care hospital; 185 (36%) patients visited the ER in last month of life and 75 (14%) received chemotherapy in last 14 days of life. Only the OPM (n=179, 34%) independently decreases the odds of receiving chemotherapy in last 14 days of life (OR 0.5, 95% CI 0.2 to 0.9) and of dying in an acute care setting (0.3, 0.1 to 0.5). PCT intervention (n=300, 58%) did not independently improve any indicators. Among patients seen by the PCT, early PCT intervention had no impact on indicators, whereas the OPM reduced the odds of persistent chemotherapy in the last 14 days of life. CONCLUSION: Multidisciplinary decision-making with oncologists and the PCT is the most critical parameter for improving EOL care.