Impact of Early Palliative Care on End-of-Life Outcomes in Hematologic Malignancies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ari Pelcovits ◽  
Adam J. Olszewski ◽  
Dominic Decker ◽  
Dana Guyer ◽  
Thomas W. Leblanc ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Palliative Care ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Hematologic Malignancies ◽  
Life Outcomes ◽  
Early Palliative Care

Chemotherapy use at the end of life in Brazil.

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e24003-e24003
Author(s):  
Munir Murad Junior ◽  
Thiago Henrique Mascarenhas Nébias ◽  
Marcos Antonio da Cunha Santos ◽  
Mariangela Cherchiglia
Keyword(s):  
Palliative Care ◽  
Cancer Treatment ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Stage Iv ◽  
Breast Cancers ◽  
Early Palliative Care ◽  
Study Population ◽  
One Year

e24003 Background: Chemotherapy in the last days of life is not associated with a survival benefit, and recent data suggest it may cause harm by decreasing quality of life and increasing costs. Both ESMO and ASCO have published position statements encouraging discussions about the appropriate cessation of chemotherapy. End-of-life chemotherapy rates vary worldwide but in summary, up to a fifth of cancer patients are treated with chemotherapy in the last month of life with no clear benefits. The aim of this study is to describe the rate of chemotherapy use in the last month of life in patients who are candidates for palliative care in Brazil. Methods: It is a prospective non-concurrent cohort carried out from a database developed through probabilistic and deterministic linkage of data from information systems of the Brazilian Public Health System. The study population is composed of all patients who started cancer treatment between 2009 and 2014 and who was hospitalized at least 1 time after starting treatment. To address the indication for palliative care, patients whose death occurred within one year after the first hospitalization were selected. Results: A total of 299,202 patients started cancer treatment in that period and 62,249 died 1year after hospitalization. Among the deceased patients, the median age was 62 years, 50.9% of them were in stage IV and 34.1% in stage III and 46% lived in the southeastern region of the country. The most common cancers were lung (n = 17805; 28.6%) colorectal (n = 12273; 19.7%) and gastric (n = 10248; 16.5%). The average number of hospitalizations was 2.7 and 89% of these patients required emergency hospitalization. About half (45,4%; n=28,250) of the patients underwent chemotherapy at the last 30 days of life. The rates of use of chemotherapy in the last month was 44% for lung cancer, 74,4% for colon, 50.2% for gastric and 51.8% breast cancers. Conclusions: Despite international recommendations on the use of chemotherapy at the end of life, this seems to be a common practice unfortunately. Measures to implement early palliative care should be a priority for the care of cancer patients in Brazil.

An early palliative care intervention can be confronting but reassuring: A qualitative study on the experiences of patients with advanced cancer

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (7) ◽  
pp. 783-792 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Fliedner ◽  
Sofia Zambrano ◽  
Jos MGA Schols ◽  
Marie Bakitas ◽  
Christa Lohrmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Palliative Care ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Advanced Cancer ◽  
Advanced Cancer Patients ◽  
End Of Life Decisions ◽  
Early Palliative Care ◽  
Network Support ◽  
Care Intervention ◽  
Life Decisions

Background: Intervention trials confirm that patients with advanced cancer receiving early palliative care experience a better quality of life and show improved knowledge about and use of palliative care services. To involve patients in future health-care decisions, health professionals should understand patients’ perspectives. However, little is known about how patients’ experience such interventions. Aim: To explore advanced cancer patients’ experiences with a structured early palliative care intervention, its acceptability and impact on the patients’ life including influencing factors. Design: Qualitative content analysis of in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Setting/participants: Patients with various advanced cancer diagnoses were enrolled in a multicenter randomized controlled trial (NCT01983956), which investigated the impact of “Symptoms, End-of-life decisions, Network, Support,” a structured early palliative care intervention, on distress. Of these, 20 patients who underwent the intervention participated in this study. Results: Participants received the intervention well and gained a better understanding of their personal situation. Patients reported that the intervention can feel “confronting” but with the right timing it can be confirming and facilitate family conversations. Patients’ personal background and the intervention timing within their personal disease trajectory influenced their emotional and cognitive experiences; it also impacted their understanding of palliative care and triggered actions toward future care planning. Conclusion: Early palliative care interventions like “Symptoms, End-of-life decisions, Network, Support” may provoke emotions and feel “confrontational” often because this is the first time when issues about one’s end of life are openly discussed; yet, advanced cancer patients found it beneficial and felt it should be incorporated into routine care.

Structured outpatient palliative care family conferences to enhance early integration of palliative care in advanced cancer.

2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (29_suppl) ◽  
pp. 36-36
Author(s):  
Cheruppolil R. Santhosh-Kumar ◽  
Deborah Gray ◽  
Stephanie Struve ◽  
Carol Huibregtse
Keyword(s):  
Palliative Care ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Direct Result ◽  
Do Not Resuscitate ◽  
Advanced Directives ◽  
Early Integration ◽  
Early Palliative Care ◽  
Family Conference ◽  
Nurse Navigator ◽  
Care Family

36 Background: Integrating early palliative care with cancer treatment improves quality of life and survival. Effective communication among physicians, patients and their loved ones is crucial to end-of-life, hospice and palliative care discussions. To address the inherent challenges in these discussions, we implemented a structured outpatient palliative care family conference (OFC) program at our community cancer clinic. Methods: A team comprising a hematologist/oncologist, cancer nurse navigator and social worker developed a toolkit for conducting an OFC, recognizing that each family conference is a unique adaptive challenge. New patients with advanced malignancies and limited life expectancy (<12 months) were offered a 90-minute structured OFC attended by the care team, patient and family members and or friends. Pre and post-conference patient satisfaction surveys and other data were collected prospectively. Results: From March 2014 through May 2015, fortyOFC were conducted (16 female and 24 male patients, median age: 67 years). Diagnoses were advanced gastrointestinal (14), lung (12), hematologic (6) and other (8) malignancies. As a direct result of the OFC program, 18 patients ordered do-not-resuscitate bracelets, 15 completed advanced directives, 7 submitted paperwork for disabled parking permits, 7 were referred to hospice and 4 for rehabilitation therapy. Further results are shown in the table. Conclusions: Structured outpatient palliative care family conferences improve satisfaction of end-of-life discussions and facilitate integration of palliative care options. Enhanced communication between providers, patients and loved ones eases the challenges of such discussions. The OFC approach could be a model for integrating palliative care in community cancer clinics. [Table: see text]

Early palliative care is associated with improved quality of end-of-life care for women with high risk gynecologic malignancies

2017 ◽  
Vol 145 ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
N.S. Nevadunsky ◽  
C. Zanartu ◽  
P. Pinto ◽  
R. Barrera ◽  
A.R. Van Arsdale ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Palliative Care ◽  
High Risk ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Gynecologic Malignancies ◽  
Early Palliative Care

scholarly journals Impact of Home Healthcare on End-of-life Outcomes for People With Dementia: a Systematic Review

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ping-Jen Chen ◽  
Lisanne Smits ◽  
Rose Miranda ◽  
Jung-Yu Liao ◽  
Irene Petersen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Palliative Care ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Healthcare Utilization ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Home Healthcare ◽  
Life Outcomes ◽  
Health And Social Care ◽  
Acute Healthcare ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background: Home healthcare (HHC) may reduce acute hospital utilization, but its effect on homebound people living with dementia (PLWD) at end-of-life remains unclear. We aim to describe the impact of HHC on acute healthcare utilization and end-of-life outcomes in PLWD.Methods: Design: A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative studies regarding the association between HHC (exposure) and targeted outcomes. Interventions: HHC provided by health care professionals, including physicians or nurses. Participants: At least 80% of study participants had dementia and lived at home. Measurements: Primary outcome was acute healthcare utilization in the last year of life. Secondary outcomes included palliative care use, advance care planning (ACP), continuity of care in the last year of life, and place of death. We identified contextual information about policy changes in HHC for these outcomes.Results: We included five studies from USA, Japan, and Italy, none of which received a high-quality rating. At micro-level, HHC may be associated with a lower risk of acute healthcare utilization in the early period (e.g., last 90 days before death) and a higher risk in the late period (e.g. last 15 days) of the disease trajectory toward end-of-life in PLWD. ACP with written decisions may be an important mediator of this. HHC increases referrals to palliative care. At meso-level, HHC providers’ difficulty in making treatment decisions for PLWD at the end-of-life may require further training and external support. Coordination between HHC and social care is mentioned but not well examined in the existing literature.Conclusions: The review highlights the dearth of dementia-specific research regarding the impact of HHC on end-of-life outcomes. In PLWD, the core components of HHC for achieving better quality end-of-life, the integration between health and social care, and coordination between primary HHC and palliative care should be further investigated in future studies.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document