Outpatient Palliative Care and Thoracic Medical Oncology: referral criteria and clinical care pathways

Over the past two decades, several trials addressed the impact of the early integration of palliative care on the clinical outcomes of advanced cancer patients. The first pivotal results from a randomized clinical trial on patients with newly diagnosed stage III and IV non small-cell-lung cancer, demonstrated that patients who received concurrent palliative care with standard cancer care, had better quality of life, less depressive symptoms, also longer median survival, and less aggressive treatment at the end of life, compared to patients receiving standard oncology care alone [1].

Source: Lung Cancer - October 10, 2019 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Augusto Caraceni, Silvia Lo Dico, Ernesto Zecca, Cinzia Brunelli, Paola Bracchi, Luigi Mariani, Marina C. Garassino, Milena Vitali Source Type: research