RESUMO
Medical oncologists are involved in cancer chemotherapy as well as end-of-life care. Recently, an increased number of patients with advanced cancer have expressed their preference to receive palliative care at their home during the end-of-life period, and several home medical care providers have aimed to provide such a service. The number of cancer patients who wish to receive home palliative care has also increased at our institution. We reviewed the characteristics of advanced cancer patients who received chemotherapy and who eventually received homecare from 2012 to 2014. The total number of patients was 22. Of these, 9 had breast cancer(40.9%)and 8 had colorectal cancer(36.4%). The median age was 68(range 36-90) years. Half of these patients died at home. The median duration of homecare to death was 64.5(range 12-252)days. Approximately 70% of patients were able to remain at home for over a month, but 3 patients died within 2 weeks at home and 1 patient returned to the hospital after 10 days of homecare due to disease progression. While palliative care in the home setting is valued by many cancer patients in the end-of-life period, close monitoring is needed for patients with rapidly progressing disease.
