Cancer
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Multicenter Study
Support of cancer patients' spiritual needs and associations with medical care costs at the end of life.
Although spiritual care is associated with less aggressive medical care at the end of life (EOL), it remains infrequent. It is unclear if the omission of spiritual care impacts EOL costs. ⋯ Cancer patients reporting that their spiritual needs are not well supported by the health care team have higher EOL costs, particularly among minorities and high religious coping patients.
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It has been reported that antidiabetic drugs affect the risk of cancer and the prognosis of patients with diabetes, but few studies have demonstrated the influence of different antidiabetic agents on outcomes after anticancer therapy among patients with cancer. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of the antidiabetic drugs metformin and insulin on the prognosis of patients with advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) plus type 2 diabetes who received first-line chemotherapy. ⋯ The current data suggested that metformin may improve chemotherapy outcomes and survival for patients who have NSCLC with diabetes.
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The authors' goal was to characterize hospice enrollment and aggressiveness of care for pancreatic cancer patients at the end of life. ⋯ Although hospice use increased over time, there was a simultaneous decrease in early enrollment and increase in aggressive care at the end of life for patients with pancreatic cancer.