Palliative chemotherapy outcomes in patients with ECOG-PS higher than 1.

Purpose: Although patients with incurable disease and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (ECOG-PS ≥ 2) are underrepresented in clinical trials, they are frequently offered palliative chemotherapy (pCT) in daily clinical practice in order to improve symptoms and quality of life. In this case-control retrospective analysis, our goal was to identify factors associated with poorer survival and lack of benefit of pCT in this population.

Patients And Methods: We evaluated 2,514 patients who died between August 2011 and July 2012 in an academic cancer care institution and its hospice.