Progressive disease in patients with cancer presenting to an emergency room with acute symptoms predicts short-term mortality.

Goals: Patients with symptomatic, advanced cancer continue to be referred late or not at all for hospice or palliative care. We conducted a retrospective cohort study to determine whether evidence of cancer progression is an independent predictor of short-term mortality in acutely symptomatic cancer patients.

Patients And Methods: We reviewed the records of 396 patients who visited the emergency center at a comprehensive cancer center in January 2000.