Table 1.

Patient characteristics

	N	%
Male gender	95	41.7
Age: median (range)	56 (21–79)
Primary tumor site
Gastrointestinal	113	49.6
Colorectal	45	19.7
Gastric	38	16.6
Pancreatic/Biliary	13	5.7
Others	17	7.4
Breast	42	18.4
NSCLC	25	11
Sarcoma	13	5.7
Gynecologic	11	4.8
Genitourinary	9	3.9
Head and Neck	7	3.1
Skin (squamous cell carcinoma)	5	2.2
Unknown primary	3	1.3
Number of metastatic sites
≤ 2	96	42.1
>  2	132	57.9
Main symptom at hospitalization
Pain	35	15.4
Dyspnea	51	22.4
Infection-related symptoms	26	11.4
Bleeding/ Symptomatic anemia	15	6.6
Gastrointestinal symptoms	71	31.1
Neurologic symptoms	11	4.8
Fatigue	19	8.3
Chemotherapy line
First line	152	66.6
Second line or greater	76	33.3
Chemotherapy regimen
Single agent	55	24.1
Combination regimen	173	75.8
ECOG-PS
2	50	21.9
3	152	66.7
4	26	11.4
Anemia1	119	52.2
Leukocytosis2	85	37.3
Lymphopenia3	86	37.7
Hypercalcemia4	23	10.1
Renal impairment5	21	9.2
Elevated liver function tests6	43	18.9
Total bilirubin elevation7	33	14.5
BMI
Underweight8	32	14
Normal9	123	53.9
Overweight10	37	16.2
Obesity11	36	15.8
Charlson Index > 6	63	27.6

Abbreviations: NSCLC non-small cell lung cancer, ECOG-PS Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status, BMI body mass index

¹Hemoglobin < 10 g/dL; ²White Blood Cell count ≥10.000/mm³; ³Lymphocytes count ≤1500/mm³; ⁴Ionized Calcium ≥5.3 mEq/L or Total Corrected Calcium ≥10.2 mg/dL; ⁵Creatinine ≥ 1.5 mg/dL; ⁶Aspartate Aminotransferase or Alanine Aminotransferase ≥2.5 times upper limit of normal; ⁷Total Bilirubin ≥1.5 mg/dL; ⁸BMI < 18.5; ⁹BMI 18.5 to 24.9; ¹⁰BMI 25 to 29.9; ¹¹BMI ≥ 30