Sepsis Hospitalizations With Versus Without Cancer

Sepsis and cancer continue to be one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Concomitantly, hospitalizations for sepsis with underlying cancer over the years have shown a decrease in mortality. However, large-scale contemporary data on mortality trends in sepsis hospitalizations with underlying malignancy are lacking.Are there any identifiable trends in patients hospitalized for sepsis with underlying malignancy versus without malignancy?We performed a retrospective cohort study using the National Inpatient Sample database from 2008 to 2017 to identify sepsis hospitalizations with versus without cancer. Baseline variables and mortality trends were compared between the 2 groups.Of the 19,160,734 sepsis hospitalizations identified between 2008 and 2017, 3,913,813 (20.4%) were associated with cancer and 15,246,921 (79.6%) did not have underlying malignancy. Compared with 2008 to 2009, the multivariable-adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of death was lower in 2016 to 2017 for both cancer (aOR: 0.55, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.53-0.57) and noncancer-associated (aOR: 0.55, 95% CI: 0.53-0.57) sepsis hospitalizations. The nonsignificant interaction term (P=0.2239) revealed that the rate of decline in mortality did not differ between the 2 groups. Stratification of the mortality in sepsis hospitalizations by various age groups revealed that the odds of death associated with cancer were highest in the younger population (18 to 44 y) with an aOR: 3.40, 95% CI: 3.24-3.57. The aOR: showed a declining trend with increasing age until cancer-associated admissions had slightly lower odds of mortality than the noncancer group at age 85 years old and older (aOR: 0.93, 95% CI: 0.91-0.95).In the 10-year study period, mortality in cancer and noncancer-associated sepsis hospitalizations has shown a declining trend. Furthermore, differences in mortality between the 2 groups decreased with increasing age.