Moving beyond “Better Late than Never”: High Symptom Burden and Diminished Functional Status at First Palliative Care Visit for Patients with Gynecological Cancers

Abstract

Background:

Despite physical and emotional distress in patients with gynecologic malignancies, palliative care (PC) is underutilized.

Objectives:

We characterize referral practices, symptom burden and functional status at the time of initial PC encounter for patients with gynecologic cancer.

Design:

Data were extracted from the standardized Quality Data Collection Tool for Palliative Care (QDACT-PC). We describe symptom burden and performance status.

Results:

At initial specialty PC encounter, patients with gynecologic cancers reported a mean of 3.3 moderate/severe symptoms. Outpatients experienced the most moderate/severe symptoms (mean 3.9) versus inpatient (mean 2.1) or home (mean 1.5). A total of 72.7% of patients had significantly impaired functional status (palliative performance scale [PPS] <70) at initial encounter. Inpatients had a more impaired functional status (mean PPS 48.8) than outpatients (mean PPS 67.0).

Conclusions:

The symptom burden for gynecologic cancer patients at initial PC encounter is high. Despite better functional status, patients referred in the outpatient setting had the highest symptom burden.