End-of-life care in Medicare beneficiaries dying with pancreatic cancer.

Background: The authors' goal was to characterize hospice enrollment and aggressiveness of care for pancreatic cancer patients at the end of life.

Methods: Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results and linked Medicare claims data (1992-2006) were used to identify patients with pancreatic cancer who had died (n = 22,818). The authors evaluated hospice use, hospice enrollment ≥ 4 weeks before death, and aggressiveness of care as measured by receipt of chemotherapy, acute care hospitalization, and intensive care unit (ICU) admission in the last month of life.