ICU Admission and Mortality Among Elderly Adults

摘要

To the Editor Dr Guidet and colleagues~(1) investigated whether, among critically ill patients aged at least 75 years, systematic admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) vs usual practice reduced mortality at 6 months. In the trial, patients with cancer were excluded without explanation. In the United States, 47% of patients with cancer (active or in remission) are aged 70 years or older.~(2) Only 3 studies have investigated the prognoses of elderly critically ill patients with cancer. The first study concerned patients with stage III or IV non–small cell lung cancers (aged ≥66 years) and reported poor results.~(3) Bonomi et al~(4) reported similar results in a similar population. More recently, Auclin et al~(5) reported that patients 65 years or older with solid cancer admitted to a medical ICU of a teaching hospital accounted for 14.3% of ICU admissions during the study period. These patients had the same ICU mortality rate as patients without cancer. In addition, 52.7% of patients with cancer discharged from the ICU received anticancer treatment when indicated.