A team of international researchers offers insights into the end-of-life care of cancer patients

20 January 2016, by Elena Granina

A country´s structural and cultural characteristics determine if cancer patients receive end-of-life care in a hospital or at home, which treatments they are given during this period and which costs are incurred. These are some of the results of an international study, conducted under participation of the Hamburg Center for Health Economics (HCHE), which examined the demand for and costs of health services during cancer patients end-of-life care in seven countries. Even though German end-of-life hospitalisation rates are low on an international comparison, a large part of cancer patients still spends their last days in a hospital. Regarding resource input and costs Germany ranked at an average level.

Further information is provided here.