Retrospective Analysis of Inpatients’ Demographic and Clinical Characteristics at Medical Oncology Service : A Single-Center Experience

Abstract

The cancer registry is a continuous, systematic process of collecting data on the occurrence and characteristics of reportable neoplasms to assess and control malignancies’ impact on the population. It helps public health professionals understand the dynamics of cancer incidences so that they can formulate strategies. To contribute to the cancer incidence studies in our region, we aimed to define the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients who had been hospitalised at Ondokuz Mayıs University Medical Faculty Hospital Oncology Service between 2018 and 2019. This retrospective, descriptive study’s participants comprised cancer patients over 18 years of age who had been admitted to the service and referred to our faculty’s medical oncology department. In this study, 519 applicants who had been hospitalised by the service were evaluated. The data of 385 patients, 134 of whose hospitalisations had been repeated, were examined. Of these 385 patients, 226 (58.7%) were male and 159 (41.3%) were female. Their mean age was 59.74 ± 12.74 (21.0–86.0). The most common reason for their admission was palliative care (153 patients; 29.5%), infection (67; 12.9%) and treatment maintenance (65; 12.5%). Lung cancer was found to be the most common cancer type (21.0%), followed by gastric cancer (12.5%) and breast cancer (11.7%). The majority of this study’s patients had been admitted to the medical oncology service with advanced metastatic disease requiring palliative support. Preparing algorithms through a multidisciplinary approach and determining the order of referrals between units will increase the quality of life for patients and their caregivers. Therefore, patient follow-up and care quality will increase when the frequency of hospitalisations and applications that exceed tertiary services’ and polyclinics’ capacities are reduced.

Keywords

• Cancer
• clinical features
• demographic features
• oncology

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