Few patients with a solid tumor who were dying in a hospital received cancer-directed therapies at the end of life, according to a retrospective cohort study involving 695 individuals. Participants had a length of stay ≥3 days and died in hospital. Investigators looked the differences in services rendered within 3 days of death among patients who received outpatient palliative care, inpatient palliative care only, and no palliative care. Among the results:

• Overall, 11% of patients received radiation and 13% received tumor-directed therapy, with no between-group differences.
• In the last 3 days of life, ~half received imaging tests.
• 6 in every 10 of those receiving no palliative care had such tests; less than half of patients in both palliative care groups received imaging tests.
• 22% of outpatient palliative care patients had do not resuscitate orders in place within the 6 months before final admission.
• Only 8% of inpatient palliative care patients and 12% of those receiving no palliative care had such orders in place.