Palliative Surgery Outcomes for Patients with Esophageal Cancer: An National Cancer Database Analysis

Variation in hospital utilization of palliative interventions for patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer near end of life

“…20,23 However, palliative intervention utilization in the management of cancer patients close to EOL (due to their frequently high symptom burden), remains poorly characterized. 2,[8][9][10] In our current national cohort focusing on patients within their last year of life, we observed over 30% variation in palliative intervention use across hospitals. There are two primary reasons this degree of observed variation is important.…”

“…Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers represent four of the eight most common causes of cancer‐related mortality worldwide 1 . Patients with GI cancers often present with advanced disease with poor prognosis 1–3 . As such, potentially avoidable hospitalizations are common and often associated with aggressive treatments with minimal gains in terms of patient survival 4,5 .…”

“…8 Efforts to address escalating symptoms often requires the use of palliative interventions with the goal of optimizing comfort. 2,9,10 In fact, palliative care and treatment measures focusing on quality of life (QOL) have been found to reduce healthcare utilization and to be beneficial to overall EOL care. 8,[11][12][13][14][15] Current best practice guidelines recommend early consultation from palliative care providers and the integration of palliative care programs into care pathways for cancer patients.…”

“…20,21 Such variation may contribute to inconsistent care resulting in either over-or under-treatment-particularly because noncurative and potentially palliative interventions, ranging from chemotherapy to surgery, represent a substantial portion of care for cancer patients within their last year of life. 2,9,10 While previous studies have focused on palliative interventions at the patient-level, hospital-level practice patterns have not previously been characterized. 22 Hospital-level data could help to identify opportunities for improving care processes intended to optimize the quality of cancer care near EOL.…”

Does Surgical Resection Significantly Prolong the Long-Term Survival of Patients with Oligometastatic Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma? A Cross-Sectional Study Based on 18 Registries

“…With the remarkable progress achieved in surgical techniques and multidisciplinary consultation, primary resection of mPDAC patients can be carried out more broadly in high-volume centers after evaluation, which should be based on the utilization of appropriate imaging studies [ 5 ]. In the last few years, active attempts and related studies on primary surgery for patients with metastatic cancer of various types are gradually increasing, such as breast cancer [ 8 , 9 ], esophageal cancer [ 10 ], and colorectal cancer [ 11 ]. Concerning the various pathological subtypes of metastatic pancreatic cancer (PC), the surgical safety and feasibility give rise to a heated discussion [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ].…”