Hospice Offers More Palliative Care but Costs Less Than Usual Care for Terminal Geriatric Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients: A Nationwide Study

Abstract

HCC patients in hospice wards received more narcotic palliative care, underwent fewer aggressive procedures, and incurred lower costs than those in acute wards. Hospice care should be promoted as a viable option for terminally ill, elderly HCC patients.

Current management of hepatocellular carcinoma: An Eastern perspective

“…Hence, close monitoring is essential. Emotional and nutritional support is also important for terminal stage care, so collaboration between the hospice team and the clinical nutrition team would be helpful [167] . Until the final round, a multidisciplinary approach should be maintained.…”

Palliative Care for People With Hepatocellular Carcinoma, and Specific Benefits for Older Adults

“…reported that in Taiwan hospice care for older adults with terminal HCC was associated with improved delivery of symptomatic medications, and was associated with reduced costs. 79 Similarly, a recent publication by Fukui et al . demonstrates lower hospitalization costs for Medicare beneficiaries with liver cancer who received hospice care.…”

Differences in medical costs for end-of-life patients receiving traditional care and those receiving hospice care: A retrospective study

“…Data of patients with terminal-stage cancer were first cut in the year of death and then cut for the second time according to the cancer diagnosis. The matching method required one-to-one matching in the same year of death, cancer diagnosis, and survival days with the nearest neighbor matching technique using the propensity score [7,32,33,38].…”