Physician Variation in End-of-Life Care Among Women With Ovarian Cancer
Ovarian cancer patients who are terminal should have access to a dignified and controlled death. So, why is this rarely the case? Sometimes the patient is unwilling to accept the inevitable and wishes to continue active treatment. More often this is physician driven.
This retrospective study looked at Medicare benefits for more than 6,000 women during the period 2000-2016. These women were all aged more than 66; they had end-stage ovarian cancer.
More than half of these women had aggressive end-of life treatment, with failure to start Palliative Care, admission to an ICU, an invasive procedure and chemotherapy during the last two weeks of life being the commonest. Analysis of the data showed a cluster of inappropriate care limited to some physicians. It is suggested that education of treating physicians would be the most effective means of improving end-of-life care.
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