Introduction: A significant proportion of patients with advanced primary or metastatic intrathoracic malignancy will eventually develop central airway obstruction. The morbidity associated with malignant airway obstruction (MAO) is considerable and the management is difficult. Our aim was to evaluate the outcomes of tracheobronchial stenting in patients with MAO and its role in palliative care. Material and Methods: This retrospective study involved a consecutive case series of patients with advanced cancer with MAO who underwent tracheobronchial stenting between August 2014 and August 2019. The European Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) scale was used to evaluate patient functional status before and after tracheobronchial stenting. Univariate survival analysis included Kaplan-Meier curves with Log-Rank test, while Cox regression was used as a multivariate analysis. Results: We included 28 patients with median age of 55.0 years (interquartile range = 49.3-66.5) and 89.3% male. The most frequent primary tumour was the esophagus followed by lungs. The majority of the patients (75%) expressed immediate symptom relief after stenting and there was a significant improvement in the mean ECOG performance status (PS; P = .005). There was no intraprocedure mortality and complications were observed in 6 patients. The median survival after airway stenting was 39.0 days (95% CI = 32.2-45.8) with poorer PS after stent insertion associated with lower overall survival (hazard ratio = 2.3 [95% CI = 1.1-4.9], P = .030) on multivariate analysis. Conclusion: Airway stent is a safe and effective procedure that offers rapid palliation of symptoms with no major complications. Therefore, stent placement should be considered as part of the treatment of patients with terminal cancer.

Introduction: Hyponatremia is frequent in cancer patients, as many studies carried out in these patients have shown. However, there are only a few studies carried out at the end of life and in palliative care. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of hyponatremia in cancer patients in the palliative care department of an oncology center and its association with survival.Material and Methods: The study included the first 300 patients hospitalized in the palliative care department in 2017. Survival was measured from the day of hospitalization until death.Results: Serum sodium was measured in 170 (59%) patients. The median serum concentration was 135 mmol/L (109 to 145). Among 91 (54%) patients, serum sodium was within the normal range, 59 (35%) had mild hyponatremia, 13 (8%) had moderate and seven (4%) had profound hyponatremia. The median survival was 13 days (1 to 1020). Serum sodium was not significantly associated with survival (p = 0.463). Regarding other variables, the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status was significantly associated with survival, while gender, age, primary cancer and number of metastatic sites were not.Discussion: Hyponatremia, mainly mild and moderate, was found in almost half of the patients included in this study. However, unlike other studies, hyponatremia was not associated with a poorer prognosis.Conclusion: Hyponatremia is common in cancer patients receiving palliative care but did not seem to influence survival.

Purpose: Assessment of treatment of cancer patients with bowel obstruction, identification of prognostic factors, and assessment of reference to palliative care. Methods: Records of patients with a diagnosis of bowel obstruction over a 6-month (January–June 2013) period were reviewed. Results: Seventy-five patients were diagnosed with bowel obstruction. Fifty-one (68%) were female and the median age was 65 years (27–100). The most frequent cancer was colorectal, 30 (40%), followed by gynecological cancer, 20 (27%). Forty-three (57%) patients underwent conservative treatment; 26 (35%) underwent surgery; and 6 (8%) had a stent placement. In 68 (91%), the bowel obstruction was resolved. Three years after the bowel obstruction episode, 15 (20%) patients were still alive. An analysis of the possible association of variables recorded with mortality was carried out, and for death at the first admission, only the resolution of the obstruction was significant ( P < .001); for the 3-year survival the significant factors were hemoglobin >10.7 g/dL ( P < .001) and ascites ( P = .001) at the time of obstruction. Thirty-seven (49%) patients were referred to palliative care. Conclusions: Although bowel obstruction in cancer patients is usually associated with a short life expectancy, some patients have relatively long survivals. Only about half of the patients were referred to palliative care.