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Mortality outcomes in hospitalized oncology patients after rapid response team activation

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, exceeded only by heart disease.1 Despite the overall decline in cancer death rates from 2000 through 2014, physicians struggle to accurately predict disease progression and mortality in patients with cancer who are within 6 months of death.2-8 This prognostic uncertainty makes clinical decision making difficult for patients, families, and health care providers. On a health care system level, an insight into end-of-life prognostication could also have substantial financial implications. In 2013, $74 billion was spent on cancer-related health care in the United States.9 Studies have shown that from 5% to 6% of Medicare beneficiaries with cancer consumed up to 30% of the annual Medicare payments, with a staggering 78% of costs being from acute care in the final 30 days of life.10 Rapid response teams (RRTs) were first introduced in 1995 and are now widely used at many hospitals to identify and provide critical care at the bedside of deteriorating patients outside of the intensive care unit (ICU) to prevent morbidity and mortality.11-15 Although not the original aim, RRTs are commonly activated on patients at the end of life and have therefore come to play an important role in end-of-life care.11,16 RRT activation in the oncology population is of special interest because the activation may predict higher inpatient mortality.17 In addition, RRT activation can serve as a sentinel event that fosters discussion on goals of care, change in code status, and initiation of palliative care or hospice use, particularly when also accompanied by an upgrade in level of care.11,18 As such, the ability to predict mortality after an RRT event, both inpatient and at 100 days after the event, could be of great help in deciding whether to pursue further treatments or, alternatively, palliative or hospice care.