Palliative Care With Tracheostomy or Gastrostomy Tube Use and End-of-Life Quality and Costs Among Patients With Head and Neck Cancer

Does palliative care timing and use of tracheostomy or gastrostomy tube (g-tube) affect end-of-life quality or costs among patients with head and neck cancer (HNC)?This cohort study including 11 135 adults with HNC found that using tracheostomy or g-tubes without palliative care during the last year of life was associated with a 3-fold increase in monthly cost in last 6 months of life. Early exposure to palliative care (started before the last 6 months of life) attenuated this high cost but was not associated with more home deaths.These findings suggest that early palliative care for HNC may provide more cost-efficient end-of-life care but not facilitate home deaths, for which a coordinated team-based approach may be required.

Corresponding Author: Antoine Eskander, MD, ScM, Department of Otolaryngology–Head antoine.eskander@mail.utoronto.ca).

Link to the article in your story

We encourage you to link out to this article in your story using the link below. It includes an access token that will give free access to the article for your readers up to one year after publication. (The link will be live after the article publishes and embargo is lifted.)

Please see the article for additional information, including full author list, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

Need more information? Contact us.