Differences in the relative importance of predictors of short- and long-term mortality among critically ill patients with cancer.

Objective: To identify the relative importance of several clinical variables present at intensive care unit admission on the short- and long-term mortality of critically ill patients with cancer after unplanned intensive care unit admission.

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of patients with cancer with unplanned intensive care unit admission from January 2017 to December 2018. We developed models to analyze the relative importance of well-known predictors of mortality in patients with cancer admitted to the intensive care unit compared with mortality at 28, 90, and 360 days after intensive care unit admission, both in the full cohort and stratified by the type of cancer when the patient was admitted to the intensive care unit.

Results: Among 3,592 patients, 3,136 (87.3%) had solid tumors, and metastatic disease was observed in 60.8% of those patients. A total of 1,196 (33.3%), 1,738 (48.4%), and 2,435 patients (67.8%) died at 28, 90, and 360 days, respectively. An impaired functional status was the greatest contribution to mortality in the short term for all patients and in the short and long term for the subgroups of patients with solid tumors. For patients with hematologic malignancies, the use of mechanical ventilation was the most important variable associated with mortality in all study periods. The SOFA score at admission was important for mortality prediction only for patients with solid metastatic tumors and hematological malignancies. The use of vasopressors and renal replacement therapy had a small importance in predicting mortality at every time point analyzed after the SOFA score was accounted for.

Conclusion: Healthcare providers must consider performance status, the use of mechanical ventilation, and the severity of illness when discussing prognosis, preferences for care, and end-of-life care planning with patients or their families during intensive care unit stays.