2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Prognostic predictors for the end of life in patients with respiratory and gastrointestinal cancer at home

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23890158
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Community health/Gerontological nurisng
Research Institution	Saga University
Principal Investigator	KUMAGAI Yuki 佐賀大学, 医学部, 助教 (10382433)
Project Period (FY)	2011-08-24 – 2013-03-31
Keywords	ライフタイム予測 / 終末期 / がん / 在宅
Research Abstract	The purpose of this study was to identify predictors for the end of life in patients with lung or gastrointestinal cancer at home. This study analyzed data from 12 terminal cancer patients who were lived at home until death. Symptoms and signs were collected from the home-nursing records. A total of 174 records were deemed suitable for analysis. All of the subjects (12) were male. Primary site of cancer was lung (7), colorectal (3) and gastric (2). Eighty percent of the patients within last 3 days of life were SpO2 level of 92 or less. So, the level of SpO2 could be used to predict the last 3 days of life in patients with lung or gastrointestinal cancer. Symptoms and signs, which were identified over 50% of the patients within last 7 days of life, could be used to predict the last 7 days of life in patients with the cancer.