Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Aug 13:7:363-8.
doi: 10.2147/CLEP.S78301. eCollection 2015.

Hospital use among patients with lung cancer complicated by bone metastases and skeletal- related events: a population-based cohort study in Denmark

Karoline Skov Dalgaard  1 , Henrik Gammelager  1 , Claus Sværke  1 , Tamás Kurics  1 , Karynsa Cetin  2 , Christian Fynbo Christiansen  1
Affiliations

Hospital use among patients with lung cancer complicated by bone metastases and skeletal- related events: a population-based cohort study in Denmark

Karoline Skov Dalgaard et al. Clin Epidemiol. .

Abstract

Objective: Skeletal-related events (SREs) among patients with bone metastases from lung cancer may be associated with considerable use of health care resources. We analyzed in- and outpatient hospital contacts in relation to SREs among all Danish lung cancer patients with bone metastases.

Methods: For this cohort study, we used the Danish Cancer Registry and the Danish National Registry of Patients to identify all persons diagnosed with first-time lung cancer and bone metastases from 2003 through 2009 in Denmark. We followed these patients until December 31, 2010, for the development of SREs (spinal cord compression; pathological or osteoporotic fracture, surgery to bone; or conventional external radiation therapy). We examined the number of inpatient hospitalizations, inpatient bed-days, hospital outpatient clinic visits, and emergency room visits within three time periods: a pre-SRE period (90-day period prior to the diagnostic period), a SRE diagnostic period (14-day period prior to the SRE), and a post-SRE period (90-day period after the SRE).

Results: We identified 1,146 patients with lung cancer, bone metastases, and ≥1 subsequent SRE among 28,443 patients with incident lung cancer. Over 75% of patients with SREs (n=852) had more than one SRE. The number of hospital bed-days was high in the post-SRE period compared to the pre-SRE period, as illustrated by patients with multiple SREs who had 10.7 (95% confidence interval, 10.4-10.9) hospital bed-days per 100 person-days in the pre-SRE period and 28.2 (95% confidence interval, 27.8-28.6) bed-days per 100 person-days in the post-SRE period.

Conclusion: SREs secondary to bone metastases in lung cancer patients are associated with a substantial number of hospital contacts and hospital bed-days.

Keywords: hospital services; lung neoplasm; utilization.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Observation periods for patients with one SRE and patients with multiple SREs. Abbreviation: SRE, skeletal-related event.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Jemal A, Bray F, Center MM, Ferlay J, Ward E, Forman D. Global cancer statistics. CA Cancer J Clin. 2011;61(2):69–90. - PubMed
    1. Hirsh V. Skeletal disease contributes substantially to morbidity and mortality in patients with lung cancer. Clin Lung Cancer. 2009;10(4):223–229. - PubMed
    1. Al Husaini H, Wheatley-Price P, Clemons M, Shepherd FA. Prevention and management of bone metastases in lung cancer: a review. J Thorac Oncol. 2009;4(2):251–259. - PubMed
    1. Brodowicz T, O’Byrne K, Manegold C. Bone matters in lung cancer. Ann Oncol. 2012;23(9):2215–2222. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Oster G, Lamerato L, Glass AG, et al. Natural history of skeletal-related events in patients with breast, lung, or prostate cancer and metastases to bone: a 15-year study in two large US health systems. Support Care Cancer. 2013;21(12):3279–3286. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources