• Sudha Sinha, Jaskirt Kaur Matharu, Jean Jacob, Gayatri Palat, Eva Brun, Thomas Wiebe, and Mikael Segerlantz.
• 1 Medical Oncology, MNJ Institute of Oncology and Regional Cancer Center , Hyderabad, India .
• J Palliat Med. 2018 Aug 1; 21 (8): 1100-1106.

AimTo study to what extent tumor-specific treatment (chemo- or radiotherapy) was given during the last 30 days in life and to examine how many of the patients were referred to a specialized palliative care unit (PCU), at a low-resource governmental hospital in India.Patients And MethodsMedical records of adult cancer patients deceased between April 1 and May 31 in 2016, and pediatric cancer patients deceased between April 1 and September 30 in 2016 were collected. Data regarding gender, age at admission, cancer diagnosis, tumor-specific treatment received, referral to the PCU, and date of death, were sampled.ResultsA total of 96 patients (52 adults and 44 pediatric patients) were included in the study. In the last 30 days of life, tumor-specific treatment was given to 39 adult patients and 38 pediatric patients. During the last week in life, 26 adult and 25 pediatric patients, respectively, received tumor-specific treatment. Twenty-six adult and 25 pediatric patients, respectively, were referred to the PCU. End-of-life (EoL) tumor therapy was given to a lesser extent among referred patients.ConclusionsEighty percent of the patients were given tumor-specific treatment near EoL. Half of the patients had been referred for specialized palliative care (SPC).

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