Characterization of the palliative management of patients with stage IV gastrointestinal tract cancer in a hospital in southern Colombia

Introduction: Gastrointestinal neoplasms are a group of malignant pathologies that cause high indices of morbimortality throughout the world. when diagnosed around 35% of cancer patients are classified as stage IV. Knowing the increasing incidence of gastrointestinal tumors and the need to offer care to those in advanced stages, it was necessary to characterize the palliative care offered to stage IV gastrointestinal cancer patients in the southern region of Colombia
Materials and methods: All patients with ICD-10 diagnosis of esophageal, gastric, colon and rectum cancer classified as clinical stage IV. Data collection was obtained from the clinical records of the patients and registered into an excel Version 15.31 design instrument. Data was analyzed using standard descriptive statistics. Statistical analysis were performed using Stata 15 ®.
Results: 285 were included. majority were male 63.16%, the average age was 61.08 years. The most frequent tumors found were those located in the stomach corresponding to 54.74% of the cases and of these the antral tumors were most reported 19.3%. The palliative management strategies for the group of patients studied were mostly aimed at medical management, especially related to comfort support measures in 55.09%
Conclusions: Stage IV gastrointestinal neoplasms were characterized alongside with their palliation strategies. The most frequent palliation treatment was based on comfort measures, invasive strategies are considered an option. More studies are required to optimize the data collection and diminish bias risk.