End-of-life transfusions in patients with an oncological diagnosis

Introduction: Cancer patients in terminal stages present symptoms related to anemia, other cytopenias, and coagulopathies that deteriorate the quality of life. These symptoms can be multicausal and do not improve in most cases. Objective: Describe the use of blood transfusions in the six months before death as an alternative palliative treatment in patients with an oncological diagnosis in the city of Medellin during the period 2013-2018. Methods: Retrospective cohort, in patients with a cancer diagnosis who received transfusions in the last six months of life, a non-probabilistic sampling of consecutive cases was executed. The analysis was carried out in SPSS, estimating absolute and relative frequencies and median with interquartile ranges. Results: Out of 3,254 medical records of cancer patients, 151 were included. The time to oncological diagnosis had a median of 2 years (IQR 1 and 3). The symptoms observed in patients before and after the first transfusion were pain, present in 32.1 % (46) and 16.9 % (25) respectively, besides drowsiness was distinguished in 25 % (36) before transfusion and 14.3 % (21) after. Finally, the clinical outcomes before and after the last transfusion prior to death, were a decrease in pain, asthenia/adynamia, drowsiness, among others. Conclusions: The findings of this research allow us to appreciate the current panorama in the institutions in which palliative care medical services are being provided and consider when to offer the blood products to a patient at the end of life as a therapeutic measure in the context of a human being cared by physicians.