Clinical research The comparison of common cancer types and the coincidence of concomitant chronic diseases between palliative home care patients in Lodz Voivodeship and the general Polish population Aleksandra Ciałkowska-Rysz1, Mariusz Kowalczyk2, Leszek Gottwald1, Sylwia Kaźmierczak-Łukaszewicz1 1Palliative Care Laboratory, Departament of Oncology, Medical University of Lodz, Poland 2Department of Nephrology, Hypertension and Family Medicine, Chair of Nephrology and Hypertension, Medical University of Lodz, Poland Submitted: 12 April 2012 Accepted: 23 May 2012 Arch Med Sci 2012; 8, 3: 496-503 DOI: 10.5114/aoms.2012.29406 Copyright © 2012 Termedia & Banach A b s t r a c t Introduction: The continued growth in the number of elderly with cancer and age-related chronic diseases will cause in Poland an increase in demand for pal- liative care. The aim of the study was to identify chronic comorbidities and can- cer types in palliative home care patients and to compare their incidence with the general Polish population. Material and methods: The data was obtained from 543 patients who received palliative home care between 2005-2009. The occurrence of the most common chronic conditions such as arterial hypertension, ischemic heart disease, dia- betes, chronic pulmonary diseases and central nervous system diseases were analysed together with the cancer types. Results: The study group included 259 women (47.7%) and 284 men (52.3%) aged 25-91 years old. The most common primary neoplasm locations for men were lung (28.2% vs. 21.4% in general population) and colorectal cancer (18.7% vs. 11.4% in general population), and in women breast (19.7% vs. 22.8% in gen- eral population) and colorectal cancer (17.4% vs. 9.2% in general population). The incidence of ischemic heart disease, diabetes, and chronic pulmonary dis- eases was significantly different in comparison to the general populations (47.0% vs. 11.3%; 20.3% vs. 6.8%; 16.6% vs. 27.5%, respectively). The mean number of concomitant diseases was 1.6 for women and 1.8 for men vs. 1.7 and 1.2 in the general Polish population respectively. Conclusions: The majority of the patients had concomitant disease, with car- diovascular diseases being most common. The most common primary neoplasm diagnoses in palliative home care patients were lung and colorectal cancer, which corresponds to the cancer prevalence in the general population. Key words: advanced cancer, palliative care, comorbidities, elderly. Introduction Cancer with common chronic conditions is the major cause of illness, dis- ability, and death around the world. Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment, and Corresponding author: Aleksandra Ciałkowska-Rysz MD, PhD Palliative Care Laboratory Department of Oncology Medical University of Lodz 3 Ciołkowskiego 93-509 Lodz, Poland Phone: +48 42 689 54 84 E-mail: olarysz@rmed.pl