Background: Radiation monotherapy effectively relieves symptoms of esophageal cancer. Many studies have reported relief from dysphagia with this treatment; however, the degree of the dysphagia is subjective.
On the other hand, the length of outpatient management is objective. In this study, we investigated how radiation monotherapy can contribute to helping elderly patients with esophageal cancer remain as outpatients.
Methods: Between January 2010 and December 2017, we followed 42 patients aged >75 years who underwent radiation monotherapy for esophageal carcinoma. Of these patients, 36 were included in
the study. We retrospectively collected data on the patients’ characteristics, tumor extension around the circumference of the esophagus, medical procedures, prognosis, cause of death, and outpatient management
period. We also analyzed the relationships between the outpatient management period, the clinical stage, and the circumferential extension of the tumor.
Results: Of the 36 patients (26 males, 10 females), 27 were treated using doses of 60 or 66 Gy, and 9 received 40 or 50 Gy. The median survival period of the patients who died during the study was 14 months,
and their median period of outpatient management was 9 months. Eight of the 12 patients with tumors extending across four-fifths or the entire circumference of the esophagus required medical intervention to
administer nutrition. There were no significant differences in the period of outpatient management among the patients who died during the study in terms of clinical stage and horizontal location.
Conclusions: Radiation monotherapy may facilitate outpatient management; however, patients with tumors extending all or most of the circumference of the esophagus required an additional medical procedure.
Purpose: While the 0–10 pain scale is often used to assess treatment response, it may not accurately reflect change in pain over time. The purpose of this study is to correlate pain improvement using the 0–10 pain scale to patients’ perceived improvement in pain following palliative radiation therapy (RT), and to qualitatively characterize themes of pain assessment.
Methods: Patients age = 20 receiving RT for spinal metastases were enrolled. Patients rated their pain (0–10) at the treatment site at RT start, and 1 and 4 weeks post-RT completion. At 1 and 4 weeks post-RT, patients reported their perceived percent improvement in pain (pPIP) (0–100%), which was compared to calculated percent improvement in pain (cPIP) based on the 0–10 pain scores. At 4 weeks post-RT, 20 randomly selected patients participated in a qualitative pain assessment.
Results: Sixty-four patients treated at 1–2 sites were analyzed. At 1 week post-RT completion, 53.7% (36/67) reported pPIP within 10 percentage points of cPIP, 32.8% (22/67) reported pPIP > 10 percentage points higher than cPIP, and 13.4% (9/67) reported pPIP > 10 percentage points lower than cPIP. Similar degrees of discordance were seen at 4 weeks post-RT. Qualitative analysis revealed five themes: pain quality (n = 19), activities (n = 9), function (n = 7), medication use (n = 2), and radiation side effects (n = 1).
Conclusions: About half of patients reported a pPIP substantially disparate from their cPIP, and the change in pain measured by the 0–10 scale tended to underestimate the degree of perceived pain improvement. Multiple themes were identified in qualitative analysis of pain response.
Bladder cancer is the 6th most common cancer worldwide and contributes significant excess mortality and morbidity. It often presents at a late stage when it is incurable, and the prognosis is poor. The local symptoms of bladder cancer-including haematuria, dysuria, frequency, nocturia and pain, have significant effects on quality of life and may require frequent inpatient admissions. As a palliative treatment, radiotherapy can be uniquely useful in providing targeted long term symptomatic control, although this must be balanced against the potential of causing toxicity. A variety of radiotherapy protocols have been developed for managing these symptoms. The results of several studies show that radiotherapy delivered in a hypofractionated regime (21 Gy in 3 fractions) can provide relief of these symptoms within a few weeks. Other commonly used regimes include 35 Gy in 10 fractions, 30 Gy in 5 fractions, a once weekly 36 Gy in 6 fractions, and a single 8 Gy fraction. In the palliative setting symptom resolution lasts for the majority of the patients remaining lifespan. Benefit is particularly clear for symptomatic haematuria and in these patients even single doses may provide rapid benefit. To maximise benefit from radiotherapy, studies are urgently needed to better estimate the prognosis of patients presenting with bladder cancer.
BACKGROUND: Early palliative care (PC) physician involvement alongside standard oncologic care has been recommended by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) guidelines for all advanced cancer patients, although adherence to these guidelines is variable. Radiation oncologists (ROs) could help facilitate early PC referral for patients treated with palliative radiation, particularly those with brain metastasis (BRM), and the aim of this study was to evaluate the circumstances of PC referral at our institution to better understand the multidisciplinary approaches to facilitate it.
METHODS: Patients diagnosed with BRM from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) from 2012 to 2018 whose primary RO and MO were at our institution were reviewed. Overall survival and time to PC consultation from the first oncologic visit following BRM diagnosis was determined using the KaplanMeier method. Mann-Whitney U and Chi-Squared assessed for predictive factors for shorter time to PC consultation. For these factors, the overall survival, rate of PC consultation, and PC setting was used to determine utilization of early PC.
RESULTS: Among 103 eligible patients, only 48% underwent a PC consultation in their lifetime, with the initial evaluation being as an outpatient for 37%, and within 1 month of death for 35%. Median survival from BRM diagnosis was 9.0 months. The median time from oncologic appointment to PC referral was 2.8 months, and from initial PC consultation to death was 1.6 months. Only more recent BRM diagnosis (2016-2018 vs. 2012-2015) was associated with shorter time to PC consultation (1.0 vs. 5.6 months, P=0.013), increased PC consult rate (60% vs. 42%, P=0.105), and increased outpatient PC consultation (56% vs. 26%, P=0.037).
CONCLUSIONS: The majority of patients did not undergo early PC consultation, though utilization has improved over time. As ROs are commonly involved in BRM management, they may be in a position to proactively support early PC consultations in this patient population.
BACKGROUND: Local radiation therapy (RT) can provide pain relief and reduce bleeding resulting from pleural or peritoneal dissemination of primary tumors. However, the optimal RT exposure dose for such tumors is unclear and the response rate is unknown. In this study, we examined the effectiveness of palliative RT for pleural or peritoneal disseminated tumors to determine the optimal dose in these patients.
METHODS: The data of 22 patients with pleural- or peritoneal-disseminated tumors who were treated with local RT at our institution between 2011 and 2019 were retrospectively reviewed.
RESULTS: Among these patients, 9 (40.9%) had pleural tumors, 13 (59.1%) had peritoneal tumors and 2 had tumors in the peritoneum and umbilicus. The most common primary tumors were lung (22.8%) and pancreatic cancer (18.2%). RT was mainly administered for pain alleviation (72.7%). Three patients (13.6%) received RT for hemostasis. Thirteen patients (59.1%) received a regimen of 30 Gy/10 fractions (fr), with the total dosage for all patients ranging from 27 to 56 Gy. No grade 2 or higher RT-related adverse events occurred. Three and four patients obtained complete and partial responses, respectively. The timing of the measurement of response to pain relief ranged from 0 to 232 (median, 21) days upon completion of RT. Overall response to pain relief occurred in nine of 16 patients (56.3%) with pain before RT. Hemostasis was confirmed in 2 of the 3 patients (66.7%) with bleeding before RT. Twelve of 20 (60%) patients with symptoms before RT responded to RT. Disease-specific survival (DSS) time after RT ranged from 1 to 656 (median, 106) days.
CONCLUSIONS: Prompt palliative administration of RT to patients with advanced disease to alleviate pain from disseminated tumors may achieve therapeutic efficacy.
Background: Despite level 1 evidence demonstrating the equivalence of single-fraction radiotherapy (sfrt) and multiple-fraction radiotherapy (mfrt) for the palliation of painful bone metastases, sfrt remains underused. In 2015, to encourage the sustainable use of palliative radiation oncology resources, CancerCare Manitoba disseminated, to each radiation oncologist in Manitoba, guidelines from Choosing Wisely Canada (cwc) that recommend sfrt. We assessed whether dissemination of the guidelines influenced sfrt use in Manitoba in 2016, and we identified factors associated with mfrt.
Methods: All patients treated with palliative radiotherapy for bone metastasis in Manitoba from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2016 were identified from the provincial radiotherapy database. Patient, treatment, and disease characteristics were extracted from the electronic medical record and tabulated by fractionation schedule. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to identify risk factors associated with mfrt.
Results: In 2016, 807 patients (mean age: 70 years; range: 35-96 years) received palliative radiotherapy for bone metastasis, with 69% of the patients having uncomplicated bone metastasis. The most common primary malignancies were prostate (27.1%), lung (20.6%), and breast cancer (15.9%). In 62% of cases, mfrt was used-a proportion that was unchanged from 2015. On multivariable analysis, a gastrointestinal [odds ratio (or): 5.3] or lung primary (or: 3.3), complicated bone metastasis (or: 4.3), and treatment at a subsidiary site (or: 4.4) increased the odds of mfrt use.
Conclusions: Dissemination of cwc recommendations alone did not increase sfrt use by radiation oncologists in 2016. A more comprehensive knowledge translation effort is therefore warranted and is now underway to encourage increased uptake of sfrt in Manitoba.
Lung cancer is one of the main causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Over the years, different therapeutic modalities have been adopted depending on tumor stage and patient characteristics, such as surgery, radiotherapy (RT), and chemotherapy. Recently, with the development of immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), the treatment of metastatic and locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has experienced a revolution that has resulted in a significant improvement in overall survival with an enhanced toxicity profile. Despite this paradigm shift, most patients present some kind of resistance to ICI. In this setting, current research is shifting towards the integration of multiple therapies, with RT and ICI being one of the most promising based on the potential immunostimulatory synergy of this combination. This review gives an overview of the evolution and current state of the combination of RT and ICI and provides evidence-based data that can improve patient selection. The combination in lung cancer is a safe therapeutic approach that improves local control and progression-free survival, and it has the potential to unleash abscopal responses. Additionally, this treatment strategy seems to be able to re-sensitize select patients that have reached a state of resistance to ICI, further enabling the continuation of systemic therapy.
This retrospective multi-center analysis aimed to assess the clinical response and stabilizing effects of palliative radiotherapy (RT) for spinal bone metastases (SBM) in head and neck cancer (HNC), and to establish potential predictive factors for stability and overall survival (OS). Patients included in this analysis were treated at the University Hospitals of Mainz, Freiburg, and Heidelberg between 2001 and 2019. Clinical information was taken from the medical records. The stability of affected vertebral bodies was assessed according to the validated spine instability neoplastic score (SINS) based on CT-imaging before RT, as well as 3 and 6 months after RT. OS was quantified as the time between the start of palliative RT and death from any cause or last follow-up. Potential predictive factors for stability and OS were analyzed using generalized estimating equations and Cox regression for time-varying covariates to take into account multiple observations per patient. The mean follow-up time of 66 included patients after the first palliative RT was 8.1 months (range 0.3–85.0 months). The majority of patients (70%; n = 46) had squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) originating from the pharynx, larynx and oral cavity, while most of the remaining patients (26%; n = 17) suffered from salivary glands tumors. A total of 95 target volumes including 178 SBM were evaluated that received a total of 81 irradiation series. In patients with more than one metastasis per irradiated region, only the most critical bone metastasis was analyzed according to the SINS system. Prior to RT, pain and neurologic deficits were present in 76% (n = 72) and 22% (n = 21) of irradiated lesions, respectively, and 68% of the irradiated lesions (n = 65) were assessed as unstable or potentially unstable prior to RT. SBM-related pain symptoms and neurologic deficits responded to RT in 63% and 47% of the treated lesions, respectively. Among patients still alive at 3 and 6 months after RT with potentially unstable or unstable SBM, a shift to a better stability class according to the SINS was observed in 20% and 33% of the irradiated SBM, respectively. Pathological fractures of SBM were frequently detected before the start of irradiation (43%; n = 41), but after RT, new fractures or increasing vertebral body sintering within the irradiated region occurred rarely (8%; n = 8). A pathological fracture before RT was negatively associated with stabilization 6 months after RT (OR 0.1, 95% CI 0.02–0.49, p = 0.004), while a Karnofsky performance score (KPS) = 70% was associated positively with a stabilization effect through irradiation (OR 6.09, 95% CI 1.68–22.05, p = 0.006). Mean OS following first palliative RT was 10.7 months, and the KPS (=70% vs. <70%) was shown to be a strong predictive factor for OS after RT (HR 0.197, 95% CI 0.11–0.35, p < 0.001). There was no significant difference in OS between patients with SCC and non-SCC. Palliative RT in symptomatic SBM of HNC provides sufficient symptom relief in the majority of patients, while only about one third of initially unstable SBM show re-stabilization after RT. Since patients in our multi-center cohort exhibited very limited OS, fractionation schemes should be determined depending on the patients’ performance status.
CONTEXT: Advanced gynecologic malignancies can cause significant vaginal bleeding. Radiotherapy (RT) is often used to palliate symptoms, but limited data exists concerning the optimal dose and expected time to bleeding hemostasis in this population.
OBJECTIVES: 1) To investigate the overall hemostasis response and kinetics of hemostasis in women with gynecologic malignancies receiving palliative RT. 2) To compare the efficacy of short-course RT (SCRT, =5 fractions, >3.5 Gy per fraction) versus conventionally fractionated long-course regimens (>5 fractions).
METHODS: We identified women receiving palliative RT for bleeding gynecologic malignancies. Initial and maximal hemostasis responses (IHR and MHR) were recorded and categorized as progressive bleeding (PD), stable disease (SD), partial response (PR), or complete response (CR). Clinical variables were correlated with response or toxicity using binary logistic regression statistical methods.
RESULTS: 33 women (median age 63) were identified between 2010-2019. Median follow-up and survival after RT were 131 days. 54.5% (18/33) received SCRT. Median time to IHR was 5 days (2.5 days with SCRT) and 78.8% (26/33) responded during treatment. Median time to MHR was 13 days. 100% achieved PR or CR at MHR. Rates of CR were similar between SCRT (83%) and conventionally fractionated schedules (87%). Average durability of hemostatic control was 5.4 months. Overall rate of rebleeding and Grade 3+ toxicity was 9.1% (3/33 each).
CONCLUSION: Women receiving SCRT for bleeding gynecologic malignancies achieved rapid symptom control (often during treatment) with minimal rebleeding. In a population whose median survival is 4 months, SCRT effectively addresses symptomatic disease while minimizing patient burden and toxicity.
New methods of working in relation to the management of patients requiring palliative radiotherapy are being embraced in hospital departments around the world. Team members are expanding on their previously assigned scope of practice to take on duties that had previously only been assigned to a consultant clinical oncologist. Career frameworks such as the four-tier model have been built upon to identify the skills held by other healthcare professionals and show how they may be best placed to take on additional roles within a patient pathway. Experiences of four departments in different countries report their local experiences in using both therapeutic radiographers and nursing staff to undertake advanced and consultant-level practice in relation to the management of both palliative radiotherapy patients and their research work streams. Involvement of other healthcare professionals within the clinical or research pathway for the management of palliative radiotherapy patients can be achieved. Their involvement can support clinicians and help to ensure the safe and efficient management of patients requiring palliative radiotherapy.
One of the greatest successes of radiotherapy has been its ability to palliate symptoms from advanced and metastatic cancers. Unfortunately, patients face barriers to accessing care and the demand for treatment is rising. Rapid access palliative radiotherapy programmes were created in response to these concerns, and over time they have proliferated and succeeded internationally. This narrative review provides an overview of programmes that have published their experiences, and discusses how they have improved access to care, increased evidence-based practice, met the needs of vulnerable populations, advanced the roles of multidisciplinary team members, collaborated across medical specialties, educated trainees and referring physicians, and developed new treatment platforms using advanced technologies.
Introduction: For patients with brain metastases, palliative radiation therapy (RT) has long been a standard of care for improving quality of life and optimizing intracranial disease control. The duration of time between completion of palliative RT and patient death has rarely been evaluated.
Methods: A compilation of two prospective institutional databases encompassing April 2015 through December 2018 was used to identify patients who received palliative intracranial radiation therapy. A multivariate logistic regression model characterized patients adjusting for age, sex, admission status (inpatient versus outpatient), Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS), and radiation therapy indication.
Results: 136 consecutive patients received intracranial palliative radiation therapy. Patients with baseline KPS <70 (OR = 2.2; 95%CI = 1.6–3.1; p < 0.0001) were significantly more likely to die within 30 days of treatment. Intracranial palliative radiation therapy was most commonly delivered to provide local control (66% of patients) or alleviate neurologic symptoms (32% of patients), and was most commonly delivered via whole brain radiation therapy in 10 fractions to 30 Gy (38% of patients). Of the 42 patients who died within 30 days of RT, 31 (74%) received at least 10 fractions.
Conclusions: Our findings indicate that baseline KPS <70 is independently predictive of death within 30 days of palliative intracranial RT, and that a large majority of patients who died within 30 days received at least 10 fractions. These results indicate that for poor performance status patients requiring palliative intracranial radiation, hypofractionated RT courses should be strongly considered.
Palliative radiotherapy (PRT) makes up about half of all courses delivered in radiotherapy departments. It is effective in the management of common complications of cancer and is relatively inexpensive. About one third of cancer patients receive PRT within the last 2 years of life. One quarter of all patients who receive radiotherapy will undergo a second or subsequent course, mostly for palliative indications. There is considerable variation in practice, both within and between jurisdictions. This has been attributed to inconsistencies in guidelines, physician variation and differing financial incentives. Because of the widespread use of hypofractionation, variation in PRT fractionation has a lower effect on departmental capacity than variation in radical and adjuvant treatments. Excessive fractionation places an unnecessary burden on frail patients at the end of their lives and uses scarce healthcare resources. With appropriate case selection, the increased cost of fractionation or more conformal treatments can be justified where clinical benefit is expected.
There are many additional considerations when treating older adults with cancer, especially in the context of palliative care. Currently, radiation therapy is underutilised in some countries and disease sites, but there is also evidence of unnecessary treatment in other contexts. Making rational treatment decisions for older adults necessitates an underlying appraisal of the person's physiological reserve capacity. This is termed 'frailty', and there is considerable heterogeneity in its clinical presentation, from patients who are relatively robust and suitable for standard treatment, to those who are frail and perhaps require a different approach. Frailty assessment also presents an important opportunity for intervention, when followed by Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) in those who require it. Generally, a two-step approach, with a short initial screening, followed by CGA, is advocated in geriatric oncology guidelines. This has the potential to optimise care of the older person, and may also reverse or slow the development of frailty. It therefore has an important impact on the patient's quality of life, which is especially valued in the context of palliative care. Frailty assessment also allows a more informed discussion of treatment outcomes and a shared decision-making approach. With regards to the radiotherapy regimen itself, there are many adaptations that can better facilitate the older person, from positioning and immobilisation, to treatment prescriptions. Treatment courses should be as short as possible and take into account the older person's unique circumstances. The additional burden of travel to treatment for the patient, caregiver or family/support network should also be considered. Reducing treatments to single fractions may be appropriate, or alternatively, hypofractionated regimens. In order to enhance care and meet the demands of a rapidly ageing population, future radiation oncology professionals require education on the basic principles of geriatric medicine, as many aspects remain poorly understood.
A 74-year-old man presented with recurrent syncope 3 months after definitive surgery for hypopharyngeal cancer. The patient experienced dizziness and severe hypotension on the movement of the neck and head. CT revealed disease recurrence with masses encasing the left internal carotid artery. The patient was diagnosed with vasodepressor type of tumour-induced carotid sinus syndrome (tiCSS) and was referred for palliative intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). Ten days after the commencement of IMRT (25 Gy in five fractions), the symptoms of tiCSS improved, and there was no re-exacerbation of the symptoms till the patient died 56 days after the commencement of RT. Palliative IMRT was feasible and effective for recurrent malignant tiCSS. Given the fact that palliative IMRT is minimally invasive, this option could be widely adapted for patients with such poor general condition and prognosis.
CONTEXT: Palliative radiotherapy is effective in the management of symptoms resulting from advanced cancer. However, it remains underutilised. In developed countries, many factors have been linked to this phenomenon but data in developing and low income countries, particularly in Latin America, are lacking.
OBJECTIVES: To conduct a cross-sectional survey to explore palliative care physicians' knowledge of palliative radiotherapy and to investigate possible factors that limit patient referral.
METHODS: Cross-sectional survey. An online questionnaire was sent to palliative care physicians (n=170) registered in the Chilean Medical Society's directory of Palliative Care.
RESULTS: The overall response rate was 58.8%. Nearly all respondents (98%) considered radiotherapy to be a useful treatment. Less than half the respondents (43%) had good knowledge of palliative radiotherapy. Knowledge was correlated with self-reported knowledge (p=0.015), discussing cases with radiation oncology (p=0.001) and having attended educational events on palliative radiotherapy (p=0.001). Patient reluctance, poor performance status and family reluctance were identified as major barriers to the use of palliative radiotherapy. Physicians from cities other than the capital were more likely to be concerned about barriers such as distance to radiotherapy facilities (p=0.01), the duration of the referral process (p=0.01) and the lack of a radiation oncologist available for discussing cases (p=0.01).
CONCLUSIONS: Several barriers affect referral to palliative radiotherapy. Some barriers seem to be more significant for physicians practicing in cities far from cancer centres. Physicians` knowledge is less than optimal and has been identified as a barrier to referral. Educational interventions and broadening the availability of cancer treatment resources are needed in order to improve the referral process.
Aims: choosing the optimal palliative lung radiotherapy regimen is challenging. Guidance from The Royal College of Radiologists recommends treatment stratification based on performance status, but evidence suggests that higher radiotherapy doss may be associated with survival benefits. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of fractionation regimen and additional factors on the survival of palliative lung cancer radiotherapy patients.
Materials and methods: A retrospective univariable (n = 925) and multivariable (n = 422) survival analysis of the prognostic significance of baseline patient characteristics and treatment prescription was carried out on patients with non-small cell and small cell lung cancer treated with palliative lung radiotherapy. The covariates investigated included: gender, age, performance status, histology, comorbidities, stage, tumour location, tumour side, smoking status, pack year history, primary radiotherapy technique and fractionation scheme. The overall mortality rate at 30 and 90 days of treatment was calculated.
Results: univariable analysis revealed that performance status (P < 0.001), fractionation scheme (P < 0.001), comorbidities (P = 0.02), small cell histology (P = 0.02), ‘lifelong never’ smoking status (P = 0.01) and gender (P = 0.06) were associated with survival. Upon multivariable analysis, only better performance status (P = 0.01) and increased dose/fractionation regimens of up to 30 Gy/10 fractions (P < 0.001) were associated with increased survival. Eighty-five (9.2%) and 316 patients (34%) died within 30 and 90 days of treatment, respectively.
Conclusion: In this retrospective single-centre analysis of palliative lung radiotherapy, increased total dose (up to and including 30 Gy/10 fractions) was associated with better survival regardless of performance status.
Context: At our institution, clinical pathways capture physicians’ prognostication of patients being evaluated for palliative radiotherapy (PRT). We hypothesize a low utilization rate of long-course RT (LCRT) and stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SAbR) among patients seen at the end-of-life, especially those with physician predicted poor prognosis.
Objective: To analyze utilization rates and predictors of LCRT and SAbR at the end-of-life.
Methods: A retrospective review was conducted on patients who were evaluated for PRT between January 2017 to August 2019 and died within 90 days of consultation. Binary logistic regression was used to identify predictors for utilization of LCRT (=10 fractions) and SAbR.
Results: A total of 1,608 patients were identified, of which 1,038 patients (64.6%) were predicted to die within a year. 693 patients (66.8%) out of 1,038 were prescribed LCRT or SAbR. On multivariate analysis, patients were less likely to be prescribed LCRT if treated at an academic site (OR 0.30; 95% CI 0.23-0.39; p<0.01) and treated for bone metastases (OR 0.08; 95% CI 0.05-0.11; p<0.01) or other non-brain/non-bone metastases (OR 0.19; 95% CI 0.13-0.30; p<0.01). SAbR was less likely to be prescribed among patients predicted to die within a year (OR, 0.09; 95% CI 0.06-0.16; p<0.01), treated for bone metastases (OR, 0.13; 95% CI 0.07-0.22; p<0.01), with poor performance status (OR, 0.51; 95% CI 0.31-0.85; p=0.01), and with a breast primary (OR, 0.35; 95% CI 0.15-0.82; p=0.02).
Conclusion: Despite most patients predicted to have a limited prognosis, LCRT and SAbR were commonly prescribed at the end-of-life.
ntroduction: Patients dying a short time after receiving palliative radiation are unlikely to have received benefit and may experience harm. To monitor the potential for avoidable harm, 30-day mortality following palliative radiation has been recommended for use as a quality indicator and the Royal College of Radiologist have recommended a rate of lower than 20%. At the Canterbury Regional Cancer and Haematology Service in Christchurch, New Zealand (CRCHS), we investigated 30-day mortality and evaluated the prognostic value of the TEACHH model in our population.
Methods: Palliative treatments from two, two-year periods (2012/2013 and 2016/2017) were retrospectively reviewed. We analysed 30-day mortality and several influencing variables. Patients were divided into three groups using the TEACHH model (type of cancer, performance status, age, prior palliative chemotherapy, prior hospitalizations and hepatic metastases).
Results: There were 1744 patients; 30-day mortality was 10% and was higher in patients with lung cancer (17% vs. 8% in non–lung cancer patients, P < 0.0001), patients having less than five fractions (13% vs. 9%, P : 0.0199) and patients in TEACHH group B/C (21% in C, 11% in B and 2% in group A, P < 0.0001). The majority of treatments (84%) used five fractions or less.
Conclusions: The mortality rate is within the suggested quality indicator, and the decreasing mortality with increasing fractionation demonstrates suitable selection of patients for longer treatment regimens. The TEACHH model can be used to increase precision in estimating prognosis, identifying patients who should not receive treatment and conversely identifying those for whom a prolonged fractionation schedule may be appropriate.
Background: the TEACHH and Chow models were developed to predict life expectancy (LE) in patients evaluated for palliative radiotherapy (PRT). We sought to validate the TEACHH and Chow models in patients who died within 90 days of PRT consultation.
Methods: A retrospective review was conducted on patients evaluated for PRT from 2017 to 2019 who died within 90 days of consultation. Data were collected for the TEACHH and Chow models; one point was assigned for each adverse factor. TEACHH model included: primary site of disease, ECOG performance status, age, prior palliative chemotherapy courses, hospitalization within the last 3 months, and presence of hepatic metastases; patients with 0-1, 2-4, and 5-6 adverse factors were categorized into groups (A, B, and C). The Chow model included non-breast primary, site of metastases other than bone only, and KPS; patients with 0-1, 2, or 3 adverse factors were categorized into groups (I, II, and III).
Results: A total of 505 patients with a median overall survival of 2.1 months (IQR: 0.7-2.6) were identified. Based on the TEACHH model, 10 (2.0%), 387 (76.6%), and 108 (21.4%) patients were predicted to live >1 year, >3 months to =1 year, and =3 months, respectively. Utilizing the Chow model, 108 (21.4%), 250 (49.5%), and 147 (29.1%) patients were expected to live 15.0, 6.5, and 2.3 months, respectively.
Conclusion: Neither the TEACHH nor Chow model correctly predict prognosis in a patient population with a survival <3 months. A better predictive tool is required to identify patients with short LE.