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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Sep 15.
Published in final edited form as: Cancer. 2010 Sep 15;116(18):4402–4409. doi: 10.1002/cncr.25389

Table 3. Timing of Palliative Care and Phase I Referrals.

Phase I
Referrals
(N=57)		 Non-Phase I
Referrals
(N=114)		 P-Value
Median interval in months (95% confidence interval)
 Diagnosis of advanced cancer to death 36 (25-47) 23 (17-29) 0.01
 Diagnosis of advanced cancer to palliative
 care consultation		 28 (19-37) 12 (9-14) <0.001
 M.D. Anderson registration to palliative care
 consultation		 13 (8-20) 11 (5-15) 0.41
 Palliative care consultation to death 5 (3-6) 4 (3-5) 0.69
 First medical oncology contact to palliative
 care consultation		 19 (13-25) 8 (4-12) 0.019
 First referring team contact to palliative care
 consultation		 1 (0.6-1.5) 9 (5-13) <0.001
Median number of clinic visits (interquartile range)
 Medical oncology visits before palliative care
 consultation		 12.5 (4.8-24) 10 (4.5-21.5) 0.45
 Palliative care visits until last followup/death 4 (3-7) 4 (2-6) 0.39