Support Care Cancer (2006) 14: 71–77 DOI 10.1007/s00520-005-0819-2
Marylou Cárdenas-Turanzas Richard M. Grimes Eduardo Bruera Beth Quill Guillermo Tortolero-Luna
Received: 16 February 2005 Accepted: 6 April 2005 Published online: 21 April 2005 # Springer-Verlag 2005 We want to state that no financial support was provided for this study M. Cárdenas-Turanzas (*) Section of Health Services Research, Department of Biostatistics and Applied Mathematics, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., P.O. Box 196, Houston, TX 77030-4009, USA e-mail:
[email protected] Tel.: +1-713-5634303 Fax: +1-713-5634246 R. M. Grimes . B. Quill The University of Texas School of Public Health, 1200 Herman Pressler Dr., Houston, TX 77030, USA E. Bruera Department of Palliative Care and Rehabilitation Medicine, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., P.O. Box 8, Houston, TX 77030, USA G. Tortolero-Luna The University of Texas School of Public Health, 7000 Fannin St., Houston, TX 77030, USA
ORIGINA L ARTI CLE
Clinical, sociodemographic, and local system factors associated with a hospital death among cancer patients
Abstract Objective: The study was conducted to examine factors associated with hospital deaths among a group of cancer patients. Patients and methods: A retrospective chart review of the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Tumor Registry was conducted. Participants were all adult cancer patients, residents of the State of Texas diagnosed and treated since January 1, 1990, and who died during the years 1999 and 2000. The study outcome was the site of death. Main results: The inclusion criteria were met by 866 patients of whom 504 (58%) died in a hospital. The group included 489 (56%) men. A number of 641 (74%) were White, 104 (12%) Hispanic, 92 (11%) Black, and 29 (3%) of other origin. The majority, 501 (58%), had been diagnosed with stage IV disease, and the median survival time was 14 months. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed patients diagnosed with hematologic cancers to be significantly more likely (p
