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Should early referral to palliative care be standard of care for all patients with metastatic cancer?
I know that some would argue that healthy patients with an excellent performance status may not need an early palliative care referral, but wouldn't it be most valuable for patients to have these conversations when they are at their best PS and health?
Answer from: Radiation Oncologist at Community Practice
There are data to support that early palliative care involvement can improve patient quality of life. One study that specifically comes to mind is a study published by Temel et al in NEJM 2010 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20818875) in the setting of metastatic NSCLC. This study randomized p...
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Answer from: Medical Oncologist at Academic Institution
I certainly agree that ideally, it would indeed be most valuable for patients to have these conversations (illness understanding, coping, other) when they are at their best PS and health. Unfortunately, the available field of palliative care practioners is not large enough to meet this ideal. Much...
Answer from: Medical Oncologist at Community Practice
I agree with @Andrew S. Epstein. While there is a great deal of momentum towards the early integration of palliative care (with endorsement of this idea by the Institute of Medicine, ASCO, and others), there are too few palliative care specialists and teams to make this a scalable solution.&nb...