Demographic and clinical characteristics of cancer patients presenting to the emergency department: A single-center experience

Abstract

Cancer is a major public health issue with a high mortality rate globally. Owing to advancements in diagnostic and treatment strategies, the survival rate of cancer patients has increased. This has also led to an increase in the frequency of emergency service use in cancer patients. Here, we retrospectively extracted and analyzed the data of patients who presented at the emergency department of Ondokuz Mayıs University’s Faculty of Medicine as outpatients or via emergency services and then required oncology consultation between January 1, 2018, and January 1, 2019. Specifically, we analyzed their demographic characteristics and clinical data, including reasons for admission, cancer stage and performance status at admission, and emergency department stay length. In total, 542 visits by 376 patients (mean age, 60.8 ± 12.8 years; 162 women, 214 men) were recorded during the study period. The most common cancer types were breast cancer in women (30.9%) and lung cancer in men (33.2%). The most common reason for admission was signs of infection, whereas the most common diagnosis was neutropenic fever (17.3%). Furthermore, 223 (59.3%) visits resulted in hospitalization. Finally, 63.1% of the patients stayed in the emergency department for <24 h. The current results may aid in developing strategies for reducing workload and costs and improving service quality for cancer patients in emergency departments.