One-month mortality in malignant vs. non-malignant palliative care patients: a two-year retrospective analysis from Türkiye

Introduction: This study aimed to evaluate patient characteristics, reasons for admission, and clinical outcomes, with a particular focus on comparing the one-month mortality rates of adult patients with and without cancer admitted to a palliative care unit.Methods: A total of 513 adult patients admitted to the Palliative Care Center of Sancaktepe Şehit Prof. Dr. İlhan Varank Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey, between January 2020 and January 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. Data collected included demographic characteristics, length of hospital stay, primary diagnoses, reasons for admission, and discharge outcomes. The one-month mortality rates of patients with malignant versus non-malignant conditions were compared.Results: The mean age of the patients was 73.2 ± 14.9 years; 54% were male and 46% were female. The most frequent reasons for admission were nutritional problems (48.9%), pain (27.4%), and the need for caregiver support (13.4%). The mean duration of hospitalization was 13.05 ± 16.2 days. Among all patients, 11.6% were transferred to the intensive care unit (ICU), 20.6% died during hospitalization, and 67.8% were discharged. Lung cancer was the most prevalent malignancy (20.4%), representing 37.2% of all cancer cases. The overall one-month mortality rate was 31.9%. Patients with malignant disease had a significantly higher one-month mortality rate (49.7%) compared with those with non-malignant disease (21.4%) (p = 0.001).Conclusion: The majority of patients admitted to the palliative care facility were elderly, with pain, nutritional problems, and caregiver support needs being the primary reasons for admission. Patients with malignancy demonstrated substantially higher one-month mortality rates. These results emphasize the importance of initiating palliative care at earlier stages in cancer patients.