Presenting Features, Reasons for Admission, and Short-Term Outcomes of Patients With Cancer Hospitalized From the Emergency Department: A Single-Center Retrospective Study

To describe the presenting features, reasons for admission, intensive care use, and short-term outcomes of adult patients with cancer who were hospitalized from the emergency department. We retrospectively reviewed adult patients with cancer admitted from the Emergency Department of Hatay Mustafa Kemal University Health Practice and Research Hospital between June 1, 2025, and May 31, 2026. Data collection extended beyond the ED note and included consultation records, inpatient progress notes, discharge summaries, imaging reports, and accessible prior encounters. Sixty-seven unique patients and 99 admission episodes were analyzed. To limit the effect of repeated visits in comparative analyses, only the first eligible admission of each patient was used. Fisher’s exact test was applied to categorical comparisons, and odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were reported. Exploratory multiple comparisons were adjusted using the Benjamini–Hochberg method. The mean age was 61.8±12.7 years, and 36 patients (53.7%) were female. Known metastatic disease was documented in 37 patients (55.2%), and 19 (28.4%) had diabetes mellitus. Breast, lung, and colon cancers were the most common primary malignancies. Gastrointestinal complaints were the leading presentation category (36.4%), whereas infectious conditions were the most common reason for admission (32.3%). ICU care was required in 49 of 99 episodes (49.5%). Twenty of 98 completed hospitalizations ended in in-hospital death (20.4%). In unadjusted analyses, red-triage patients had more frequent ICU admission (91.7% vs 40.0%; OR=16.50; 95% CI: 1.99–137.06; p=0.001) and in-hospital mortality (41.7% vs 12.7%; OR=4.90; 95% CI: 1.21–19.76; p=0.032). After multiple-testing adjustment, the associations between red triage and ICU admission and between ICU admission and mortality remained significant. Among hospitalized oncology patients, the complaint at ED presentation did not always correspond to the condition that ultimately prompted admission. Infectious and metabolic problems accounted for a substantial proportion of admissions. The high use of intensive care and the observed in-hospital mortality underscore the importance of identifying clinical severity early in the ED course.