Place of Death of People with Cancer in NSW

Cancer reports
05 Oct 2007
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Place of death is an important consideration in maximising the quality of the final days of a person’s life, and of the experience of their relatives and carers. Across Australia, deaths attributable to malignant diagnoses are of particular concern for palliative care services.

Although up to 90% of terminally ill patients spend the majority of their final year at home, only about a third of patients receiving palliative care services actually die at home. This is in spite of evidence that the majority of terminally ill patients, including those dying from cancer, would prefer to die at home.

This report presents an analysis of the place of death of people with cancer in New South Wales from 1972 to 2003, with particular  emphasis on the period 1999 to 2003. The aim of this report is to provide both a quantitative description of place of death from cancer and allow an investigation of some of the determinants of place of death using Central Cancer Registry data.

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