A study found that oncologists vary greatly in prescribing systemic cancer therapies in the last 30 days of a patient’s life. Patients treated by high prescribers were almost four and a half times more likely to receive end-of-life therapy compared to those treated by low prescribers. The study analyzed data from the SEER-Medicare database of 17,609 patients with breast, lung, colorectal, or prostate cancer. High prescribers had a 45% rate of treating patients in the last 30 days of life, compared to 17% for low prescribers. The study suggests further research is needed to understand the reasons for this variability and reduce overutilization of end-of-life cancer treatments.
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How Do Oncologists Differ in End-of-Life Therapy?
