As immunotherapy has become more widely available, cancer patients have been referred to subacute rehabilitation (SAR) facilities at an increasing rate, to become well enough to tolerate treatment, investigators report.
However, “many patients never receive additional therapy and are readmitted or deceased within a short time, marking this population as one with strong needs for concurrent palliative and usual oncology care,” wrote Jonathan C. Yeh, MD, of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and coauthors. Their report is in Journal of Oncology Practice.
To determine if the advent of immunotherapy contributed to an increase in referrals to SAR facilities – and which patients survived long enough to benefit – the researchers reviewed the electronic charts of 358 patients who were referred to such facilities. The number of referrals increased gradually over the 8-year period of the study.
Of these 358 patients, 174 (49%) were seen again in the oncology clinic before readmission or death and 117 (33%) ever received additional cancer-directed treatment. The patients most likely to receive additional treatment were those with leukemia, lymphoma, or localized solid disease.
Of the 413 total discharges, 116 (28%) resulted in hospital readmission within 30 days of discharge. Seventy-four (21%) of the patients were deceased within 30 days; 212 (59%) were deceased within 180 days. Only 123 (30%) of the initial admissions involved a palliative care specialist; this involvement was associated with increases in documented goals of care, completion of advance directives, and election of do-not-resuscitate status.
The authors noted their study’s limitations, including all of the data coming from a single tertiary cancer center. In addition, the data are observational, which made the researchers “unable to control for key patient characteristics such as performance status, patient goals, insurance coverage of trials, and the like.”
Dr. Smith reported being employed by UpToDate and receiving royalties as coeditor of the Oxford Textbook of Cancer Communication. No other conflicts of interest were reported.
SOURCE: Yeh JC et al. J Oncol Pract. 2019 Aug 29. doi: 10.1200/JOP.19.00044.