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It has been demonstrated that most patients in the terminal stages of cancer would benefit from palliative home-care services.

The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of appropriate palliative home-care services in reducing hospital admissions, and to identify factors predicting the likelihood of patients treated at home being hospitalized.

Retrospective cohort study.

We enrolled all 402 patients listed by the Local Health Authority No. 5, Veneto Region (North-East Italy), as dying of cancer in 2011.

Of the cohort considered, 39.9% patients had been taken into care by a palliative home-care team. Irrespective of age, gender, and type of tumor, patients taken into care by the palliative home-care team were more likely to die at home, less likely to be hospitalized, and spent fewer days in hospital in the last 2 months of their life. Among the patients taken into care …