Objective: This study aims to analyse patients' clinical profiles seen at an emergency unit of a public oncology reference hospital in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional, observational, retrospective study, with data collection through patients' medical records seen between 2016 and 2018. The identification of patients was carried out through research on hospital admission authorization guides.
Results: A total of 2932 medical records were evaluated, of which only 21.5% were cancer patients. A cancer diagnosis was made for 21.5% of patients during hospitalisation. In this group, pain and weight loss are frequent symptoms, and haematological diseases (15.2%) were the most frequent tumour type. Patients with a previous cancer diagnosis presented the most prevalent tumour breast (18.3%) and altered consciousness level as a leading symptom. Analgesics were the most prescribed drugs in both groups.
Conclusion: This study showed two distinct groups of cancer patients: with or without a previous cancer diagnosis. However, these two groups are comparable in almost all the variables analysed. Therefore, we believe that the factors that could guide the care in an emergency are related to education on cancer symptoms for the population to contribute to an early diagnosis and cancer training for emergency department (ED) professionals' to better monitor advanced-stage patients for symptom management.
Keywords: cancer; emergency; end-of-life; public health system; symptoms; urgency.
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