Introduction: We present the results of a five year retrospective study of chemotherapy delivered at home for patients suffering from non-small cell lung cancer.
Methods: In partnership with "hospital at home" we have developed mechanisms to improve safety: secured prescriptions, treatments confirmations transmitted by fax, designed specific chemotherapy file and approval of family doctor prior to administration.
Results: We treated 74 patients and administered 401 injections of which 72% were for Vinorelbine and 28% for Gemcitabine. These protocols corresponded to day 8 injections for Cisplatin-based double drug therapies in 47% of cases and to weekly single drug chemotherapies in 53%.
Conclusions: Constraints regarding medical staff availability were exceeded by many advantages: better hospital bed management, guaranteed treatment, improvements in patients' quality of life and strengthening of links between hospital and community.