The aim of this study is to clarify the outcomes of blood culture tests in patients with advanced cancer receiving hospice care. A total of 527 patients who took blood culture tests between April 2021 and March 2024 at our palliative care unit were included in the study. The rate of multiple blood culture set collection, positivity rate and contamination rate were 73.4%, 22.5% and 2.6%, respectively. The most-frequently-isolated pathogen was coagulase-negative staphylococci (28.8%). The rate for antimicrobial-resistant bacteria was 4.5%. Among the positive patients, 79.2% were administered appropriate antimicrobial regimens based on the drug susceptibility tests. The most frequently used antimicrobial as targeted therapy for bacteremia was vancomycin (31.5%). Despite their short lifespans, we conclude that blood culture test can be beneficial for patients receiving palliative care. Further observational studies are required to clarify characteristics of infectious diseases in terminally-ill patients with advanced cancer.

Tuberculous spondylitis, or so-called Pott's disease, seems to be overlooked because of a lack of severe inflammation in the insidious generating process and tends to cause non-specific symptoms, such as back pain, fever, weakness, and weight loss. Diagnostic delay is common and the results can be disastrous. Discriminating between Pott's disease and other diseases, such as malignancy and pyogenic infection, is difficult. However, the inflammatory process in Pott's disease tends to spare the disk space, while that of pyogenic infection typically affects the area. Herein, we present a patient with Pott's disease who showed the characteristic clinical and radiological findings.