Background:

Having a glioblastoma is still a synonym of a very poor prognosis. In this population, end-of-life signs and symptoms differ from the rest of the cancer population.

Objective:

To identify the main signs and symptoms that occur in patients with glioblastoma in their last seven days of life in a neuro-oncology ward.

Methods:

Descriptive and retrospective study. Sample composed of people with glioblastoma in the last seven days of life, hospitalized in the neurology ward, with medical and nursing records. Admission in the institution through neuro-oncology consultation between 2019/2020. Data collection was performed through patient’s clinical records analysis.

Results:

The sample has 17 people. The most prevalent signs and symptoms were: “decreased level of consciousness” (94%); “rare and unexpected events” (94%); “respiratory dysfunction” (88%) and “loss of ability to swallow” (76%).

Conclusions:

The study allowed responding to the research objective. The results underline the importance of carrying out studies with more representative samples, given that most studies are found to be focused on the cancer population in general.

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