Table 2.

Characteristics of patients who received palliative chemotherapy (CT) for metastatic pancreatic cancer in the period 2005–2013 in the Netherlands, by age group

	All patients	<70 years	70–74 years	75–79 years	≥80 years	Chi2
	N = 2180%	N = 1674%	N = 329%	N = 142%	N = 35%	P–value
Patient
Gender
Male	1194 (55)	56	51	54	57	0.49
Female	986 (45)	44	49	46	43
Socioeconomic status (SES)
High	724 (33)	33	34	29	40
Intermediate	874 (40)	40	38	42	46	0.56
Low	582 (27)	27	28	29	14
History of cancer
No	1944 (89)	91	85	77	77	<0.001
Yes	236 (11)	8.7	15	23	23
Comorbid c.a	(n = 420)	(n = 325)	(n = 64)	(n = 27)	(n = 4)	<0.001
0	152 (36)	42	17	22	0
1	122 (29)	30	25	26	50
2+	110 (26)	20	52	37	25
Unknown	36 (8.6)	8.3	6.3	15	25
Comorbid c. (%yes)a	(n = 384)b	(n = 298)b	(n = 60)b	(n = 23)b	(n = 3)b
Diabetes	92 (24)	21	35	30	0	0.09
Cardiac disease	54 (14)	9.7	28	26	67	<0.001
Vascular disease	45 (12)	8.4	25	17	33	0.001
Pulmonary disease	30 (7.8)	7.1	13	4.4	0	0.33
Hypertension	103 (27)	24	40	26	33	0.09
Digestive tract disease	42 (11)	9.7	10	26	33	0.06
Tumor
Tumor verification						0.009
Verified	1968 (90)	91	88	87	77
No verification	212 (9.7)	8.8	12	13	23
Primary tumor						0.27
Head of pancreas	964 (44)	44	48	44	34
Body or tail	894 (41)	42	36	39	57
Other or overlapping	322 (15)	15	16	17	8.6
Number of metastatic sites
1	1497 (69)	69	69	63	69	0.51
≥2	645 (30)	29	28	37	31
Unknown	38 (1.7)	1.8	2.1	0.7	0
Time interval to CT
Median [p25–p75] in daysc	25 [15–42]	26 [15–43]	26 [16–48]	21 [13–33]	18 [13–34]	0.007
≥6 weeksc	443 (26)	27	29	17	12	0.03
Mortality of starting CT
30–day mortalityc	141 (8.4)	8.0	8.5	10.0	20.0	0.17
90–day mortalityc	541 (32)	31	31	44	48	0.02

Comorbid c., Comorbid conditions; SES, socioeconomic status; NOS, not otherwise specified; N, number of patients.

^aRegion–wide data only n = 420 (18% of all patients).

^bexcluding patients with unknown comorbid conditions.

^cIf date of initiating chemotherapy is available n = 1676 (77% of all patients).