• Cancer patients
• Cancer specialized hospital
• Characteristics and outcomes
• Intensive care unit

• Humans
• Cross-Sectional Studies
• Intensive Care Units
• Cancer Care Facilities
• Lung Neoplasms/epidemiology
• Lung Neoplasms/therapy
• Colorectal Neoplasms/epidemiology
• Colorectal Neoplasms/therapy
• Retrospective Studies
• Hospital Mortality

• Glioblastoma
• Intensive care unit
• Invasive mechanical ventilation
• Outcome

• Humans
• Respiration, Artificial
• Retrospective Studies
• Glioblastoma/therapy
• Hospitalization
• Intensive Care Units

• Universitätsklinikum Regensburg (8921)

Patients with spinal metastasis (SM) are at advanced stages of systemic cancer disease. Surgical therapy for SM is a common treatment modality enabling histopathological diagnosis and the prevention of severe neurological deficits. However, surgery for SM in this vulnerable patient cohort may require prolonged postoperative intensive care treatment, which could adversely affect the anticipated benefit of the surgery. We therefore assessed postoperative prolonged mechanical ventilation (PMV) as an indicator for intensive care treatment with regard to potential correlations with early postoperative mortality and overall survival (OS).

Between 2015 and 2019, 198 patients were surgically treated for SM at the author´s neurosurgical department. PMV was defined as postoperative mechanical ventilation of more than 24 hours. A multivariate analysis was performed to identify pre- and perioperative collectable predictors for 30 days mortality.

Twenty out of 198 patients (10%) with SM suffered from postoperative PMV. Patients with PMV exhibited a median OS rate of 1 month compared to 12 months for patients without PMV (p < 0.0001). The 30 days mortality was 70% and after one year 100%. The multivariate analysis identified “PMV > 24 hrs” (p < 0.001, OR 0.3, 95% CI 0.02-0.4) as the only significant and independent predictor for 30 days mortality (Nagelkerke’s R2 0.38).

Our data indicate postoperative PMV to significantly correlate to high early postoperative mortality rates as well as to poor OS in patients with surgically treated SM. These findings might encourage the initiation of further multicenter studies to comprehensively investigate PMV as a so far underestimated negative prognostic factor in the course of surgical treatment for SM.

To evaluate the association and risk factors of healthcare-associated infection (HAI) and burden of illness among chemotherapy-induced ulcerative mucositis (UM) patients.

For this research, US National Inpatient Sample database 2017 was utilized to study UM patients. The association of healthcare-associated infection-related burden of illness among UM patients was assessed on the outcome––length of hospital stays (LOS), total charges, in-hospital mortality, and discharge disposition.

In 2017, there were 11,350 adult (> 18 years of age) UM patients, among them there were 415 (3.5%) HAI. After adjusting for patient and clinical characteristics, UM patients with HAI were most likely to have higher total charges and longer LOS (1.91; 95% CIs: 1.51–2.41; P < 0.001; 1.84; 95% CIs: 1.53–2.21; P < 0.001) than those without HAI. Further, mortality was not significantly different. UM patients with HAI were less likely to have higher burden of illness who were younger, females, those living in non-metropolitan or micropolitan counties, and those with lower co-morbidity score. Additionally, UM patients with HAI were more likely to discharge to skilled nursing facility (SNF), intermediate care facility (ICF), and another type of facility (ATF), (aOR = 2.58 (1.16–5.76), P = 0.02), than they were to discharge to self-care or home care.

UM patients with HAI were more likely to have higher burden of illness and more likely to discharged to the SNF, ICF, and ATF rather than to home or self-care.

Clinical relevance

UM patients when associated with HAI have higher burden of illness; a tailored approach to oral care might prevent HAIs and burden of illness among UM.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00784-021-04106-0.

• Adult
• Antineoplastic Agents
• Cost of Illness
• Delivery of Health Care
• Female
• Humans
• Length of Stay
• Mucositis
• Retrospective Studies
• Risk Factors

Advances in oncology led to a substantial increase in the number of patients requiring admission to the ICU. It is significant to confirm which cancer critical patients can benefit from the ICU care like noncancer patients.

An observational retrospective cohort study using intensive care unit (ICU) admissions of Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care III from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA, USA between 2001 and 2012 was conducted. Propensity score matching was used to reduce the imbalance between two matched cohorts. ICU patients with cancer were compared with those without cancer in terms of patients’ characteristics and survival.

There were 38,508 adult patients admitted to ICUs during the period. The median age was 65 years (IQR, 52–77) and 8308 (21.6%) had an underlying malignancy diagnosis. The noncancer group had a significant survive advantage at the point of 28-day, 90-day, 365-day and 1095-day after ICU admission compared with cancer group (P < 0.001 for all) after PSM. Subgroup analysis showed that the diagnosis of malignancy didn’t decrease 28-day and 90-day survive when patients’ age ≥ 65-year, patients in surgical intensive care unit or cardiac surgery recovery unit or traumatic surgical intensive care unit, elective admissions, patients with renal replacement therapy or vasopressor support (P > 0.05 for all).

Malignancy is a common diagnosis among ICU patients. Patients without cancer have a survive advantage compared with patients with cancer in the short- and medium-term. However, in selected groups, cancer critical patients can benefit from the ICU care service like noncancer patients in the short-term.

• Critical illness
• Intensive care unit
• Malignancy
• Prognosis

• Advance Care Planning/ethics
• Aged
• Canada/epidemiology
• Communication Barriers
• Critical Illness/mortality
• Critical Illness/psychology
• Death
• Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation/methods
• Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation/mortality
• Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation/psychology
• Female
• Humans
• Intensive Care Units/ethics
• Intensive Care Units/standards
• Intensive Care Units/statistics & numerical data
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Nursing Homes/ethics
• Nursing Homes/statistics & numerical data
• Professional-Patient Relations/ethics
• Prognosis
• Quality of Health Care/organization & administration
• Quality of Health Care/standards
• Quality of Life
• Risk Assessment
• Severity of Illness Index
• Terminal Care/methods
• Terminal Care/psychology
• Truth Disclosure/ethics

Surgical resection represents a common treatment modality in patients with brain metastasis (BM). Postoperative prolonged mechanical ventilation (PMV) might have an enormous impact on the overall survival (OS) of these patients suffering from advanced cancer disease. We therefore have analyzed our institutional database with regard to a potential impact of PMV on OS of patients who had undergone surgery for brain metastases.

360 patients with surgically treated brain metastases were included. The definition of PMV consisted of postoperative mechanical ventilation lasting for more than 48 hours. Analysis of survival incorporating established prognostic factors such as age, location of BM, and preoperative physical status was performed.

14 of 360 patients with BM (4%) suffered from postoperative PMV after surgical treatment of BM. Patients with PMV presented in a significantly more impaired neurological condition preoperatively than patients without (p<0.0001). Multivariate analysis determined PMV to be a significant prognostic factor for OS after surgical treatment in patients with BM, independent of other predictive factors (p<0.0001).

The present study demonstrates postoperative PMV as significantly related to poor OS in patients with surgically treated BM. Postoperative PMV is a so far underestimated prognostic predictor, but might be utilized for optimized patient management early in the postoperative phase. For this purpose, the results of the present study should encourage the initiation of further scientific efforts.

• brain metastases
• cancer
• intensive care
• overall survival
• prolonged mechanical ventilation

• hematological patients
• intensive care unit stay
• oncological patients

Cancer patients account for 15% of all admissions to intensive care unit (ICU) and 5% will experience a critical illness resulting in ICU admission. Mortality rates have decreased during the last decades because of new anticancer therapies and advanced organ support methods. Since early critical care and organ support is associated with improved survival, timely identification of the onset of clinical signs indicating critical illness is crucial to avoid delaying. This article focused on relevant and current information on epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment of the main clinical disorders experienced by critically ill cancer patients.

• Acute respiratory failure
• Cancer
• Cardiotoxicity
• Chemotherapy
• Critical care
• Infection
• Mechanical ventilation
• Neutropenia
• Postoperative
• Sepsis

Although patients with advanced or metastatic lung cancer have poor prognosis, admission to the ICU for management of life-threatening complications has increased over the years. Patients with newly diagnosed lung cancer appear as good candidates for ICU admission, but more robust information to assist decisions is lacking. The aim of our study was to evaluate the prognosis of newly diagnosed unresectable lung cancer patients.

A retrospective multicentric study analyzed the outcome of patients admitted to the ICU with a newly diagnosed lung cancer (diagnosis within the month) between 2010 and 2013.

Out of the 100 patients, 30 had small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and 70 had non-small cell lung cancer. (Thirty patients had already been treated with oncologic treatments.) Mechanical ventilation (MV) was performed for 81 patients. Seventeen patients received emergency chemotherapy during their ICU stay. ICU, hospital, 3- and 6-month mortality were, respectively, 47, 60, 67 and 71%. Hospital mortality was 60% when invasive MV was used alone, 71% when MV and vasopressors were needed and 83% when MV, vasopressors and hemodialysis were required. In multivariate analysis, hospital mortality was associated with metastatic disease (OR 4.22 [1.4–12.4]; p = 0.008), need for invasive MV (OR 4.20 [1.11–16.2]; p = 0.030), while chemotherapy in ICU was associated with survival (OR 0.23, [0.07–0.81]; p = 0.020).

This study shows that ICU management can be appropriate for selected newly diagnosed patients with advanced lung cancer, and chemotherapy might improve outcome for patients with SCLC admitted for cancer-related complications. Nevertheless, tumors’ characteristics, numbers and types of organ dysfunction should be taken into account in the decisional process before admitting these patients in ICU.

• Chemotherapy
• Intensive care
• Lung cancer
• Metastatic
• Outcome