A 6 years experience in Home-Care: Efficient and cost-effective strategy of treatment in terminal cancer care

8183 Background: The G.R.A.D.O. Association (Gruppo Ricerca Assistenza Domiciliare Oncologica) providing home-care for cancer patients was begun in June 1998. The drawing thought of our work is that, in the advanced phases of cancer, the best place of treatment should be the patients’ home, considering that house is the natural container of persons’ life which, with a convenient help, would prefer to spend the terminal phases of their life at home rather than hospital. Patients and Methods: Patients are visited at home by an oncologist and a professional nurse; they together draw up the assistance program. The professional teem is also composed of an internist, a physician for pain therapy, a psychologist, a physiotherapist. Assistance is completely free for the patients and their families. The professional team is also supported by a group of trained volunteers who are responsible for the social aspects of the patients’ life. During these six years of activity 455 patients, the mean age was 64.7 yrs (16–...