Chemotherapy near end of life is linked with greater emergency intervention

Patients who are terminally ill with cancer who have chemotherapy in the last months of life are more likely to undergo resuscitation and die in an intensive care unit than in a hospice or at home, a study has found.

Researchers from Boston and New York in the United States investigated the impact of using chemotherapy in the months before death after previous studies highlighted the fact that oncologists often delay discussing patients’ options for dying.

Previous research has also linked the use of chemotherapy within two weeks of death with higher rates of hospitalisation, although only 6% of patients receive chemotherapy this late.

The researchers investigated the …