The following is a summary of “Preliminary results regarding automated identification of patients with a limited six-month survival prognosis using nursing assessment in uro-oncology patients,” published in the May 2023 issue of the Urologic Oncology by Roch et al.
Contrary to current recommendations, palliative co-management of cancer patients is frequently delayed in clinical practice. Palliative care specialist (PCS) co-management should be considered at the latest following the assumption of a 6-month prognosis. Consequently, identifying patients with a poor prognosis is a reasonable course of action. A screening instrument for limited prognosis was used to identify patients based on their tumor stage and nursing anamnesis data.
In this retrospective investigation, a monocentric cohort of patients with UICC (Union for International Cancer Control) stages III and IV urological malignancies was enrolled between March and December 2019, with a 6-month follow-up period concluding in May 2020. The majority of patients who have prostate cancer are male. Patients with uro-oncological tumors who died within six months had significant correlations with repeated hospitalizations within three months, pain on admission, malnutrition, impaired respiration, and decreased mobility (P<0.0001).
At a cutoff value of five, the test was of adequate quality (AUC = 0.727), with a sensitivity of 97% and a specificity of 25%. NPV was 0.82, while PPV was 0.64. Using an automated scoring system based on tumor stage and nursing anamnesis data, researchers identified predictors of limited prognosis in patients with urological cancer across multiple entities. Therefore, they acknowledged hospitalization as an essential transition point and identified nurses as valuable partners for identifying unmet palliative care requirements without additional technical, personnel, or monetary effort.
Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S107814392300008X
