Researchers conducted the study at a tertiary referral hospital and cancer center from 2003 to 2014. They identified 20,975 sepsis patients, of which 7,489 had cancer. They assessed sepsis-associated in-hospital death rates in three-year intervals.
Sepsis-associated mortality rates in cancer patients decreased from 31.3 percent in 2003-05 to 26.0 percent in 2012-14, resulting in an absolute decrease of 5.2 percent.
In contrast, sepsis-associated mortality rates increased in patients without cancer from 20.9 percent in 2003-05 to 23.9 percent in 2012-14 — an absolute increase of 2.1 percent.
Researchers wrote that the decrease in sepsis-related deaths among cancer patients could be explained by advances in the management of cancer and/or better sepsis treatments specifically in patients with cancer.
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