End-of-Life Care of Acute Myeloid Leukemia Compared with Aggressive lymphoma in Patients Who Are Eligible for Intensive Chemotherapy: An Observational Study in a Japanese Community Hospital

BACKGROUND: Patients with hematological malignancies (HMs) are reported to receive more aggressive care at the end of life (EOL) than patients with solid tumors. However, the reasons behind this occurrence are not fully understood. OBJECTIVES: To examine whether the care at EOL for HMs is mainly because of the disease characteristics or hematologists' attitudes and systems of care, we compared the EOL care of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL). DESIGN: We retrospectively analyzed the EOL care of patients with AML and DLBCL younger than 80 years who were receiving combination chemotherapy at a city hospital in Japan. RESULTS: Fifty-nine patients with AML and 65 with DLBCL were included. Those with AML received chemotherapy more often within their last 30 days (48% vs. 19%, p < 0.001) and 14 days (37% vs. 1.5%, p < 0.001) of life, and consulted the palliative team less frequently (5.3% vs. 29%, p < 0.001). In the last 3 years, the mortality rate in hematological wards decreased from 74% to 29% in the DLBCL group, but only from 95% to 90% in the AML group. In multivariate analysis, AML (odds ratio [OR] 0.065) and death before 2018 (OR, 0.077) were significant factors associated with reduced referrals to specialized palliative teams. CONCLUSION: Patients with AML tend to have lesser access to specialized palliative care and fewer options for their place of death than those with DLBCL. Detailed EOL care plans are needed for these patients, considering the characteristics of the disease.