Background: Cancer patients near end of life (EOL) often suffer malnourishment and cachexia. In these patients, the prescription of parenteral nutrition (PN) remains highly controversial. Guidelines state that nutritional support does not improve quality of life in dying patients. We aimed to assess the compliance with international recommendations about PN prescription in advanced cancer, identify factors associated with PN at EOL and to evaluate the risk of blood stream infections (BSI).
Methods: Retrospective analysis of data from medical records of patients who died in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019 in a cancer center.
Results: One thousand two hundred and sixty patients with advanced cancer were included. PN was prescribed in 574 (45.6%) patients, the mean duration of PN was 10±9.7 days. Patients with a severe malnutrition [odds ratio (OR) =2.36; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.42-4.02], a malignant bowel obstruction (MBO) (OR =2.25; 95% CI: 1.44-3.56), a length of hospitalization >12 days (OR =2.21; 95% CI: 1.67-2.94), a body mass index (BMI) <22.14 kg/m2 (OR =2.02; 95% CI: 1.52-2.67), an antitumor treatment (OR =1.58; 95% CI: 1.14-2.20) were more frequently prescribed a PN. BSI was diagnosed in 113 patients (9%) and was more frequent in patients receiving a PN (13% vs. 6%; OR =2.01; 95% CI: 1.18-3.54).
Conclusions: International guidelines on PN in EOL cancer patients are poorly applied in the studied settings. Factors associated with the use of PN were low BMI, severe malnutrition, antitumor treatment, increased length of hospitalization. These findings argue for the use of a survival estimation tool and a multidisciplinary integrative care intervention when considering PN.
Keywords: Cancer; blood stream infection (BSI); end-of-life care; parenteral nutrition (PN).