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Revista Médica La Paz
On-line version ISSN 1726-8958
Abstract
HERRERA BELMONTE, Gema and MALDONADO PONCE, Lisset Teresa. EPIDEMIOLOGICAL PROFILE OF CANCER PATIENTS IN PALLIATIVE CARE UNIT AT ONCOLOGY HOSPITAL OF CAJA NACIONAL DE SALUD FROM LA PAZ - BOLIVIA. Rev. Méd. La Paz [online]. 2022, vol.28, n.1, pp.9-17. Epub June 30, 2022. ISSN 1726-8958.
Cancer is a public health problem which incidence increases. Palliative care is focused on alleviating, but not curing the disease; it is estimated that annually 40 million people will need palliative care in the coming years. Since the palliative care unit of the Oncology Hospital of the Caja Nacional de Salud (CNS) has been recently established, patients’ epidemiological profile is unknown.
Objective:
To describe the epidemiological profile of patients in Palliative Care Unit of the CNS cancer center, La Paz city in Bolivia, from February 2019 to January 2020.
Methodology:
prospective longitudinal descriptive study, sample obtained by non-probability sampling of purposive type. Universe of 2188 patients admitted to the CNS Oncology Hospital between February 2019 and January 2020. 363 patients who were referred to the Palliative Care Unit over these months were included, corresponding to 16.6% of the Universe.
Results:
The highest percentage of admitted patients was female (56 %), the most prevalent age group ranged 66 to 75 years (29 %). The 10 most frequent diagnoses were: cervical, hepatobiliary, lung, colorectal, prostate, breast, gastric, peritoneal carcinomatosis of unknown primary site, ovarian, renal, and pancreatic cancer. At admission, patients presented an ECOG score of 4, followed by ECOG 3.
Conclusions:
It is concluded that a better quality of life can be provided if palliative care is started early in patients requiring it.
