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Use of chemotherapy at the end of life in Turkey

BACKGROUND: An increasing number of patients receive palliative chemotherapy near the end of life. The aim of this study is to evaluate the aggressiveness of chemotherapy in Turkish individuals near the end of life. METHODS: Patients diagnosed with solid tumors and died from 2010 to 2011 in the medi...

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Autores principales: Sezgin Goksu, Sema, Gunduz, Seyda, Unal, Dilek, Uysal, Mukremin, Arslan, Deniz, Tatlı, Ali M, Bozcuk, Hakan, Ozdogan, Mustafa, Coskun, Hasan S
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4247666/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25435808
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-684X-13-51
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author Sezgin Goksu, Sema
Gunduz, Seyda
Unal, Dilek
Uysal, Mukremin
Arslan, Deniz
Tatlı, Ali M
Bozcuk, Hakan
Ozdogan, Mustafa
Coskun, Hasan S
author_facet Sezgin Goksu, Sema
Gunduz, Seyda
Unal, Dilek
Uysal, Mukremin
Arslan, Deniz
Tatlı, Ali M
Bozcuk, Hakan
Ozdogan, Mustafa
Coskun, Hasan S
author_sort Sezgin Goksu, Sema
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: An increasing number of patients receive palliative chemotherapy near the end of life. The aim of this study is to evaluate the aggressiveness of chemotherapy in Turkish individuals near the end of life. METHODS: Patients diagnosed with solid tumors and died from 2010 to 2011 in the medical oncology department of Akdeniz University were included in the study. Data about the diagnosis, treatment details and imaging procedures were collected. RESULTS: Three hundred and seventy-three people with stage IV solid tumors died from 2010 to 2011 in our clinic. Eighty-nine patients (23.9%) patients underwent chemotherapy in the last month of life while 39 patients (10.5%) received chemotherapy in the last 14 days. The probability of undergoing chemotherapy in the last month of life was influenced by: age, ‘newly diagnosed’ patients, and performance status. There was no significant association of chemotherapy in the last month of life with gender and tumor type. Having a PET-CT scan did not alter the chemotherapy decision. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, chemotherapy used in the last month of life in a tertiary care center of Turkey is high. Increasing quality of life should be a priority near the end of life and physicians should consider ceasing chemotherapy and direct the patient to early palliative care.
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spelling pubmed-42476662014-11-30 Use of chemotherapy at the end of life in Turkey Sezgin Goksu, Sema Gunduz, Seyda Unal, Dilek Uysal, Mukremin Arslan, Deniz Tatlı, Ali M Bozcuk, Hakan Ozdogan, Mustafa Coskun, Hasan S BMC Palliat Care Research Article BACKGROUND: An increasing number of patients receive palliative chemotherapy near the end of life. The aim of this study is to evaluate the aggressiveness of chemotherapy in Turkish individuals near the end of life. METHODS: Patients diagnosed with solid tumors and died from 2010 to 2011 in the medical oncology department of Akdeniz University were included in the study. Data about the diagnosis, treatment details and imaging procedures were collected. RESULTS: Three hundred and seventy-three people with stage IV solid tumors died from 2010 to 2011 in our clinic. Eighty-nine patients (23.9%) patients underwent chemotherapy in the last month of life while 39 patients (10.5%) received chemotherapy in the last 14 days. The probability of undergoing chemotherapy in the last month of life was influenced by: age, ‘newly diagnosed’ patients, and performance status. There was no significant association of chemotherapy in the last month of life with gender and tumor type. Having a PET-CT scan did not alter the chemotherapy decision. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, chemotherapy used in the last month of life in a tertiary care center of Turkey is high. Increasing quality of life should be a priority near the end of life and physicians should consider ceasing chemotherapy and direct the patient to early palliative care. BioMed Central 2014-11-19 /pmc/articles/PMC4247666/ /pubmed/25435808 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-684X-13-51 Text en © Sezgin Goksu et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014 This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Sezgin Goksu, Sema
Gunduz, Seyda
Unal, Dilek
Uysal, Mukremin
Arslan, Deniz
Tatlı, Ali M
Bozcuk, Hakan
Ozdogan, Mustafa
Coskun, Hasan S
Use of chemotherapy at the end of life in Turkey
title Use of chemotherapy at the end of life in Turkey
title_full Use of chemotherapy at the end of life in Turkey
title_fullStr Use of chemotherapy at the end of life in Turkey
title_full_unstemmed Use of chemotherapy at the end of life in Turkey
title_short Use of chemotherapy at the end of life in Turkey
title_sort use of chemotherapy at the end of life in turkey
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4247666/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25435808
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-684X-13-51
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