Early Palliative Care Is Associated With Reduced Emergency Department Utilization in Pancreatic Cancer

Objectives: Most patients with pancreatic cancer have high symptom burden and poor outcomes. Palliative care (PC) can improve the quality of care through expert symptom management, although the optimal timing of PC referral is still poorly understood. We aimed to assess the association of early PC on health care utilization and charges of care for pancreatic cancer patients. Materials and Methods: We selected patients with pancreatic cancer diagnosed between 2000 and 2009 who received at least 1 PC encounter using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare. Patients who had unknown follow-up were excluded. We defined “early PC” if the patients received PC within 30 days of diagnosis. Results: A total of 3166 patients had a PC encounter; 28% had an early PC. Patients receiving early PC were more likely to be female and have older age compared with patients receiving late PC (P
Source: American Journal of Clinical Oncology - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: Original Articles: Gastrointestinal Source Type: research