A Comprehensive Analysis of 5-Year Outcomes in Patients with Cancer Admitted to Intensive Care Units

Abstract

Background:The aim of this study was to evaluate the long-term (5 years) clinical outcomes of patients who received intensive care unit (ICU) treatment using the Korean nationwide data. Methods:All patients aged >18 years with ICU admission, according to the Korean claims data from January 2008 to December 2010, were enrolled. The enrolled patients were followed up until December 2015. The primary outcome was ICU mortality.Results: Among all critically ill patients admitted to the ICU (n = 323,765), patients with cancer showed higher ICU mortality (18.6%) than those without cancer (13.2%). There was no difference in ICU mortality at day 28 among patients without cancer (14.5%) and those with cancer which was not lung cancer or hematologic malignancies (14.3%). Hazard ratios for the ICU mortality at 5 years were: 1.90 (1.87-1.94) for lung cancer; 1. 44 (1.43-1.46) for other solid cancers; and 3.05 (2.95-3.16) for hematologic malignancies, versus patients without cancer. Conclusions:This study shows that the long-term survival rate of patients with cancer was significantly worse than that of general critically ill patients. However, short term outcomes of critically ill patients with cancer were not significantly different from those of general patients, except for cases with lung cancer and hematologic malignancies.