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Palliative Care

A claims analysis of elderly patients with pancreatic cancer has shown that those receiving early palliative care consultations had lower healthcare utilization than patients who received late palliative care. Read More ›

Discussions about prognosis, transitions to palliative care, and the end of life are—to say the least—challenging for patients and providers. But effective, honest, and supportive communications are keys to good clinical care and informed decision-making, according to Dame Lesley Fallowfield, FMedSci, DPhil, Professor of Psycho Oncology, Sussex Health Outcomes Research & Education in Cancer, University of Sussex, Brighton, England. Read More ›

A recent survey by Consumer Reports shows that nearly 90% of Americans prefer to die at home, focused on comfort, and yet 66% of Americans aged >65 years die in a healthcare setting, intubated and in considerable pain. According to Angelo E. Volandes, MD, MPH, Internal Medicine Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, this misalignment between the medical care people want and the care they ultimately receive is the most urgent problem in American healthcare today. Read More ›

The largest-ever study of palliative care trends has shown the use of palliative care services to be “sporadic at best” for patients with hematologic malignancies. According to the review of nearly 300,000 patients, there was also significant heterogeneity in practice patterns, including National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated practices, across all characteristics studied. Read More ›


Family- and patient-related factors were identified as the most significant barriers to early end-of-life discussions, as well as to the timely discontinuation of cancer-directed therapies in the palliative setting, according to the results of a multicenter survey of oncologists in Ontario, Canada. Read More ›