No Benefit from Chemo at End of Life

Quality of life takes a hit in healthiest cancer patients, researchers say.

Chemotherapy near death failed to improve quality of life (QOL) for patients with cancer, even those who otherwise were in good health, a review of end-of-life care showed.

Quality of life near death (QOD) deteriorated in patients who had good performance status when they started chemotherapy. Palliative chemotherapy had no impact on QOL among sicker patients, Holly Prigerson, PhD, of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, and colleagues reported online in JAMA Oncology.

"Results indicated that the association between chemotherapy use and worse QOL in the final week of life for patients with good perfromance status at the time of enrollment remained statistically significant even after adjustment for receipt of aggressive life-prolonging care," the authors said. "Thus, chemotherapy appears to contribute directly to worse QOD, presumably through adverse and toxic effects that impair the...

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http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/Ethics/52801