Effect of Early Palliative Care on Chemotherapy Use and End-of-Life Care in Patients With Metastatic Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer

The overall number of chemotherapy regimens did not differ significantly by study group. However, compared with those in the standard care group, participants receiving early palliative care had half the odds of receiving chemotherapy within 60 days of death (odds ratio, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.23 to 0.99; P = .05), a longer interval between the last dose of intravenous chemotherapy and death (median, 64.00 days [range, 3 to 406 days] v 40.50 days [range, 6 to 287 days]; P = .02), and higher enrollment in hospice care for longer than 1 week (60.0% [36 of 60 patients] v 33.3% [21 of 63 patients]; P = .004).

Although patients with metastatic NSCLC received similar numbers of chemotherapy regimens in the sample, early palliative care optimized the timing of final chemotherapy administration and transition to hospice services, key measures of quality end-of-life care.