Study Finds No Need to Expand Mesothelioma Palliative Care

Earlier palliative care for patients with pleural mesothelioma failed to improve quality of life or extend survival time in a recent study presented at the World Conference on Lung Cancer in Yokohama, Japan. The randomized control study took place in Australia and the United Kingdom, disputing an earlier recommendation by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) that called for expanding palliative care for mesothelioma patients. “Blindly offering palliative care to all, that doesn’t appear to be a benefit,” Dr. Fraser Brims, study presenter from Curtin University in Perth, Australia, told Asbestos.com. “The results really went against what many thought would be the case. It was quite surprising.” Pleural mesothelioma is a rare and aggressive cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. There is no definitive cure and most patients live less than 18 months after diagnosis. Palliative care typically focuses on quality of life and relieving symptoms caused by the disease itself or the side effects from the medications used to treat it. No Difference in Quality of Life The study involved 174 mesothelioma patients who were randomly assigned standard of care alone or early specialist palliative care, which involved visits every four weeks. The vast majority of the patients were men with the epithelioid subtype of mesothelioma and had high symptom burden. Median age was 72.6 years, and 60 percent of those studied had at least one cycle of chemotherapy. Brims’ study ...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: American Society of Clinical Oncology Curtin University Dr. Fraser Brims epithelioid GHQ-12 Institute for Respiratory Health mesothelioma palliative care Perth Australia pleural mesothelioma quality-of-life variables Sir Charles Gardne Source Type: news