Principal Investigator: Shanthi Sivendran MD

Department: Oncology, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine

Services Provided: Data Analysis, Publication Support

Publication: S Sivendran, SF Lynch, et. al. Anticancer Therapy at the End of Life: Lessons From a Community Cancer Institute. March 2019. Journal of Palliative Care (Accepted)

Description:
Studies have shown aggressive cancer care at end of life is associated with decreased quality of life, decreased median survival, and increased cost of care.  We worked with Dr. Shanthi Sivendran and her team to perform a retrospective cohort study of 201 patients who received systemic anti-cancer therapy at Lancaster General Hospital. We defined our outcome variable as the receipt anti-cancer treatment in the last 14 days of a patient’s life. We evaluated 20 clinical exposure variables with respect to the outcome classes using univariate risk ratios and the Benjamini-Hochberg method for determining significance in light of multiple testing. Our findings demonstrate those enrolled in the Oncology Care Model(OCM) and those with hematologic malignancies have a higher risk of receiving anti-cancer therapy in the last 14 days of life.  These observations highlight the need for better identifying the needs of high-risk patients and providing good quality care throughout the disease trajectory to better align end of life care with patients’ wishes.