End-of-Life Care

Aggressive end-of-life care for patients with terminal cancer and other illnesses is costly and not recommended. ASCO recommends that patients with terminal cancer should receive palliative care rather than interventions that do not prolong life but do add to suffering.

San Antonio, TX—An innovative care model program for end-of-life care for patients with cancer improved symptom management, reduced hospitalizations and in-hospital deaths, and increased the use of hospice care.

Boston, MA—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.

The initiative to improve end-of-life care in the United States is taking center stage, and it is about time. The US population is aging, and the number of older Americans with comorbidities is growing.

The recent Institute of Medicine report “Delivering High-Quality Cancer Care: Charting a New Course for a System in Crisis” addressed the important issues of delivering high-quality cancer care, including end-of-life care.

Hollywood, FL—End-of-life issues have advanced in a positive direction since the so-called death panel controversy of 2009, but health plans still need to promote these discussions, said J. Russell Hoverman, MD, PhD, Vice President, Quality Programs, Texas Oncology, at the Third Annual Conference of the Association for Value-Based Cancer Care.

Houston, TX—Payer-sponsored programs that promote appropriate end-of-life care are beneficial to all stakeholders, according to Ira M. Klein, MD, MBA, Chief of Staff to the Chief Medical Officer, Aetna Oncology Strategy.

A Canadian study examining the reasons why a patient with cancer will visit the emergency department near the end of life points out shortcomings in current care delivery systems and suggests a greater role for more effective palliative care, say the authors.