Washington, DC (UroToday.com) Lee Hugar from the University of Pittsburgh presented his work regarding palliative care and bladder cancer. They found approximately 3.6% use of palliative care using SEER-Medicare data. Of 2185 patients with advanced bladder cancer (T4, N+ or M+), only 90 (4.1%) received palliative care. Predictors for use of palliative care include being a younger patient, female, having increased comorbidities, living in the central US, and those who underwent radical cystectomy versus bladder sparing approach. Between 2008-2013 trends in palliative care use did not significantly change. Within their own institution, they found 2.5% use of palliative care among bladder cancer patients in 2016. They cannot conclude the optimal rate of palliative care in bladder cancer. While 34% of the cohort had advanced disease, palliative care was markedly underused. These findings support further research in palliative care and in order to determine how palliative care use can be improved along with quality of life.
Presented by: Lee Hugar, MD, MSCR, Department of Urology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Written by: Stephen B. Williams, MD, Medical Director for High Value Care; Chief of Urology, Associate Professor, Director of Urologic Oncology, Director Urologic Research, The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, TX and Ashish M. Kamat, MD, Professor, Department of Urology, Division of Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX at the 2019 Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network (BCAN) Think Tank August 8-10, 2019 – the Capital Hilton, Washington, DC, USA