Multidisciplinary decision-making regarding chemotherapy for lung cancer patients-An age-based comparison.

Optimising decision-making in elderly patients is becoming increasingly urgent. We analysed treatment decisions and course of therapy for patients with lung cancer in different age categories: <65, 65-75, and 75 years and older. About 349 patients with lung cancer (median age 67.8 years), discussed at the multidisciplinary team meeting in the Diakonessenhuis Utrecht, the Netherlands, were reviewed. Multidisciplinary decision-making and subsequent clinical course were extracted from medical files. We found that 39% of eligible patients older than 75 years of age started treatment with chemotherapy compared to 80% of the younger patients (<65 and 65-75). When patients did receive chemotherapy, primary and secondary treatment adaptations were effectuated in 58%: for patients aged <65 in 49%, for patients aged 65-75 and >75 years in 66%. For 44% of all patients treated with chemotherapy, unplanned hospital admissions were required: in 42% for the patients <65, in 52% for those aged 65-75 and in 27% for >75 years. The decision-making process and course of treatment for lung cancer vary per age category. In particular, patients between 65 and 75 years of age might be more frail than initially thought. Age and frailty are important characteristics that need more attention.

Chemotherapy and healthcare utilisation near the end of life in patients with cancer.

The quality of medical care delivered to patients with cancer near the end of life is a significant issue. Previous studies have defined several areas suggestive of aggressive cancer treatment as potentially representing poor quality care. The primary objective of current analysis was to examine chemotherapy and healthcare utilisation in the last 3 months of life among patients with cancer that received palliative chemotherapy. Patients were selected from the hospital administration database of the Diakonessenhuis Utrecht, the Netherlands. Data were extracted from the medical files. A total of 604 patients were included for analysis (median age: 64 years). For 300 patients (50%) chemotherapy was given in the last 3 months (CT+). For 76% (n = 229) of CT+ patients unplanned hospital admissions were made in these last 3 months, compared to 44% (n = 133) of CT- patients (p < .001). Visits to the emergency room in last 3 months were made by 67% (n = 202) of CT+ patients compared to 43% (n = 132) of CT- patients (p < .001). Healthcare consumption was significantly higher in patients who received chemotherapy in the last 3 months of life. Being able to inform our patients about these aspects of treatment can help to optimise both the quality of life and the quality of dying in patients with cancer.

Evaluation and reporting of quality of life outcomes in phase III chemotherapy trials for poor prognosis malignancies.

BACKGROUND: Quality of life (QoL) should be included in trials where treatment is expected to have a limited impact on long-term survival. We set out to determine whether phase III chemotherapy trials addressing solid malignancies with a poor prognosis include QoL as a study objective and to assess the extent to which these data have been published. METHODS: We performed a search of the National Institutes of Health clinical trial registry website to identify phase III chemotherapy trials for poor prognosis solid malignancies. The retrieved protocols were subsequently reviewed, to assess whether QoL was included as an outcome measure. Subsequently, a Medline, Embase and world-wide-web search was performed to identify any full text publication or conference abstract regarding the outcome of trials including QoL, which were then reviewed to determine whether and to what extend quality of life results were included. RESULTS: For the 201 included studies, we found that 57 % of trials did not include QoL as a study objective. Of the remaining trials, 50 % have not reported the QoL results in a full text publication, or presented these only as a single sentence statement. CONCLUSION: Evaluation and publication of QoL results of phase III chemotherapy trials for poor prognosis solid malignancies remains limited. This must be improved in order to provide patients suffering from these malignancies with adequate information regarding the benefits and risks of the treatment in terms of both prolongation and quality of life.