Early Palliative Care In Patients With Hematological Malignancies: Where Do We Go From Here?

We have read with great interest the paper by Porta-Sales and colleagues (1) reporting encouraging and innovative results of an early palliative care (PC) program in patients with multiple myeloma (MM). Interestingly, the authors noted that symptoms improved quickly, leading to a decrease in the interference of symptoms with daily functioning. We speculate that benefits of early PC could also be extended to other hematologic disorders. Although the benefits of the early PC integration into standard clinical practice for cancer patients have been widely recognized (2, 3), little empirical data exist in this area for patients with hematological malignancies, including MM patients.
Source: Journal of Pain and Symptom Management - Category: Palliative Care Authors: Source Type: research