Relationship Between Cancer Status and Medical Response by an Emergency Dispatch Center: from a French SAMU Database.

Objective > In many countries, the first line response to an emergency call is decided by the emergency dispatch center EMS clinician. Our main objective was to compare the pre -hospital response to calls received from cancer and non -cancer patients. We also compared the reasons for calling, for each group. Methods > We conducted a retrospective cohort study of data collected between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2020, from emergency dispatch center records of the Is & egrave;re county, France. Statistical tests were conducted after matching one cancer patient with two non -cancer patients, resulting in a cohort of 44,022 patients. We used multivariate logistic regression to determine the impact of patient cancer status on the medical decision taken in response to the emergency call. Results > Overall, data on 849,110 patients were extracted, including 16,451 patients with a diagnosis of cancer and 29,348 non -cancer patients. In the matched cohort, cancer was associated with a higher odd of having a mobile intensive care unit (MICU) [odds ratio (OR) = 2.02 (1.81 -2.26), p < 0.001] or an ambulance being dispatched to the patient's home or other location [OR = 2.36 (2.24 -2.48), p < 0.001]. The two most frequent medical responses were to send an ambulance (58.6%) and giving advice only (36.8%). The five main reasons for the emergency call for the cancer group were cardiovascular disease symptoms (13.5%), respiratory problems (10.6%), digestive disorders (10.4%), infections (8.9%) and neurological disorders (6.0%). Conclusion > An MICU or an ambulance was more often dispatched for cancer patients than for others. Considering that cancer is a very frequent comorbidity in Western countries, knowledge of the patient's cancer status should be sought and taken into consideration when a patient seeks emergency help.