Button E, Chan RJ, Chambers S, Butler J, Yates P.
BMC Cancer. 2017 Mar 23;17(1):213.
This systematic review looked at identifying prognostic factors in the last 3 months of life that are associated with increased risk of mortality for haematological malignancy; most patients were predominantly treated with aggressive curative or life-prolonging intent. This included 28 studies; mostly were in the intensive care unit settings and retrospective. The prognostic factors were categorised into 5 groups, mainly: demographics; interventions (eg: vasopressor support or mechanical ventilation), physiological complications (eg: bone marrow or multi-organ failure); disease characteristics; and laboratory blood values. Using the QUIPS tool, most studies were of moderate quality, three were high quality and one study was rated to be of low quality.
Composed by Elaine Boland.