Chemotherapy in the last 30 days of life, correlation with age and palliative care referral: A 1-year retrospective gastrointestinal program experience at SQCCCRC.

person Ahmad Ghoche SQCCCRC, Muscat, Oman info_outline Ahmad Ghoche, Rami Abu Omar, Amani Ismail Mahmoud, Mansour Al-Moundhri

Authors person Ahmad Ghoche SQCCCRC, Muscat, Oman info_outline Ahmad Ghoche, Rami Abu Omar, Amani Ismail Mahmoud, Mansour Al-Moundhri Organizations SQCCCRC, Muscat, Oman Abstract Disclosures Research Funding No funding sources reported Background: Chemotherapy in the last days of life can carry unnecessary toxicities to the patient with no significant impact on survival and disease outcome. This is becoming of greater interest with the involvement of palliative care in patient’s management along with the advent of new therapeutic options with progressively increased cost of treatment. Methods: I n our retrospective study, we aimed to analyze retrospectively the data of GI tumors treated at SQCCCRC over one year, by looking at the possible factors influencing the time from last treatment to death. We conducted chart review of all death that occurred between January 2023 and December 2023 in the GI cancer program at SQCCCRC. Information on demographics, type of GI cancer, type, intent and route of chemotherapy, line of chemotherapy and referral to palliative care were collected. Results: A total of 65 patients died within the GI cancer program between January 1st, 2023, to dec 31 st , 2023. Most (72.7%) of the patients died of disease progression. Intent for chemotherapy was palliative in 90.9% of cases. Chemotherapy was parenteral (Intravenous) for the majority (60%, 38/63) of the patients. From all the recovered deaths, a total of 52 patients (82%) were referred to palliative team before death whereas palliative team was involved in the journey of all patients. 12 deaths out of 65 occurred in ICU. Only 11 out of 65 patients died within last 30 days of treatment: 81.8% of them were under palliative care at the time of death. For this group, the median age at diagnosis was 50 yo. Median age at death was 61 yo. 72.7% were male. Primary site of disease was colon followed by stomach. Median time from diagnosis to palliative referral was 13.5 months. 8 patients died within 3.5 days of referral to palliative care. In the logistic regression models, only age at diagnosis was a significant predictor for receiving chemotherapy in the last 30 days of life (p = 0.019). Older age was associated with lower odds of receiving chemotherapy in this period (OR = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.89-0.99). Referral to palliative chemotherapy was not associated with decreased rate of treatment administration within last 30 days of life. Conclusions: While some real-world data suggested correlation between shifting to palliative care and administration of chemotherapy in the last 30 days of life, this was not the case in our collected sample, and only the age of the patient played a role in the chemotherapy timing before death. Further studies are needed to study the reasons behind and the best way to improve patient’s centered approach.