THE EFFECTIVENESS OF HOME-BASED CHEMOTHERAPY IN CANCER PATIENTS ON REDUCING HOSPITAL READMISSION DUE TO TREATMENT COMPLICATIONS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Abstract

Home-based chemotherapy allows patients to receive treatment at a lower cost and patients will view themselves as less sick when they are in their own home. This may improve a patient's quality of life. With the advanced medical technology, cancer patients were offered home-based chemotherapy as a potential choice of treatment recommended by their physician. However, there are adverse events in home-based chemotherapy that will be assessed and graded according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events. Some of these side effects may increase the frequency of rehospitalization. Hospital readmission can cause stress on the patients as well as healthcare systems and currently, there are no comprehensive reviews conducted on the effectiveness of home-based chemotherapy in cancer patients on the reduction of hospital readmission related to chemotherapy complications. Hence, this study aims to determine whether home-based chemotherapy has better patient outcomes based on reduced hospital readmission due to complications. Literature search will include PubMed and ProQuest. The inclusion criteria involve: a) cancer patients undergoing home-based chemotherapy, b) English and non-English articles with full English translation from 2010 to 2020, and c) Studies measuring health outcome based on readmission rate. Studies will be excluded: a) participants who are under 18 years old, and b) participants with cognitive impairment. The quality of the evidence will be evaluated using the Grade of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation system and Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool. Two reviewers will be screening the studies independently and extract the relevant data and narrative synthesis was performed. Five randomised controlled trials were selected and the review shows that home-based chemotherapy has better patient outcomes based on reduction of hospital readmission. Future studies should explore more in comparing hospital readmission for home-based chemotherapy and inpatient chemotherapy in developing and rural regions.