Use of chemotherapy and immunotherapy in the last two months of life in a French institutional anticancer center, 2008-2009.

Reduced use of chemotherapy at the end of life in an integrated-care model of oncology and palliative care

“…In another North American study, utilizing the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) data on the use of palliative chemotherapy in a terminal phase 6 , the incidence was 18.5%. Other data reported 29% in a French study covering the years 2008-2009 7 , 16% in a Canadian study for patients in the last 2 weeks of life 8 , and 20% in a Finnish study of advanced breast cancer patients who continued with chemotherapy in the last month of life 9 .…”