Use of Palliative Care in Managing Genitourinary Malignancies May Vary Across the United States

Where you live may matter when it comes to receiving palliative care for malignant genitourinary (GU) cancers, according to study results presented at the 2020 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, held in San Francisco, California. The researchers reviewed the utilization of palliative care in patients with GU cancers and found that those admitted to hospital in the West received more palliative care than other regions of the United States (odds ratio [OR]=1.42, P =.03). The findings showed that utilitization of palliative care was also higher among patients receiving Medicare or Medicaid and those admitted on the weekend.

Using The National Inpatient Sample Database for 2016, the researchers identified 58,765 hospitalized patients with a principal diagnosis of malignant neoplasm of prostate (MNP; n=39,853), renal cell carcinoma (RCC; n=17,786), and malignant neoplasm of ureter (MNU; n=1126).

Race did not appear to affect the odds of receiving palliative care, and no statistical differences were found when comparing patients admitted at teaching hospitals to those admitted at nonteaching hospitals.

Mean age of patients who received for palliative care varied based on the diagnosis (MNP, 72 years; RCC, 63 years; MNU, 73 years). Women received slightly more palliative care than their male counterparts (6.7% vs 6.4%). The study also showed that 27.4% of the patients receiving palliative care died in the hospital. Greater use of palliative care was noted among patients receiving Medicare or Medicaid compared to patients with private insurance (OR=1.21).

“Further studies are needed to reveal the role of socioeconomic status and insurance in the utilization of palliative care in [genitourinary] malignancies,” write the authors.

Reference

Roy AM, Konda M, Goel A, Verma R. Utilization of palliative care in patients with genitourinary malignancies. J Clin Oncol. 2020;38(suppl 6):abstr 669.