Relative survival of terminal cancer patients in home versus hospital care.

A non-randomized study was undertaken in 1980-1982 to compare the effectiveness of home care versus hospital care for patients suffering from terminal stages of malignant diseases at a large cancer hospital in Pireaus, Greece and in the surrounding community. The survival pattern of 101 patients with malignant disease at various stages enrolled in a home care program for terminal patients was compared with the survival pattern of a matched comparison group of an equal number of hospital treated cancer patients. The two groups were matched for age, sex, time of initial diagnosis, primary tumor and stage of the disease at the time of diagnosis. The comparison of the survival curves was done using the logrank test taking into account censored observations. The results indicate that, under the conditions prevailing while this study was undertaken, home care was less effective compared to hospital care when survival was used as the only outcome criterion.