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Specialist care for symptoms, decision-making and quality of life given alongside cancer treatment from diagnosis, not just at the end. Trials show it improves quality of life and mood and may lengthen survival.
Palliative care is the interdisciplinary management of physical, psychological, social and spiritual suffering. Temel's randomised trial (NEJM 2010) in metastatic NSCLC showed early palliative care improved quality of life and depression and, unexpectedly, survival (11.6 vs 8.9 months) with less aggressive end-of-life care. Subsequent trials (ENABLE III, Zimmermann 2014, Bakitas) and meta-analyses confirmed quality-of-life and caregiver benefits; ASCO (2017, updated 2024) recommends concurrent palliative care for all patients with advanced cancer within 8 weeks of diagnosis. Delivery models include embedded clinics, telehealth (REACH PC showed video equivalent to in-person, JAMA 2024), nurse-led and primary palliative care by oncologists. The workforce gap is global: most LMICs lack access to palliative care and opioids.
Systematic symptom assessment (ESAS, PRO-based), goals-of-care and prognostic communication (serious illness conversations), advance care planning and caregiver support delivered by a specialist team working in parallel with disease-directed treatment.
Methylnaltrexone (Relistor) is an injection or tablet that relieves the severe constipation caused by strong painkillers in people with advanced cancer, without blocking the pain relief itself.
Quadramet (samarium-153 lexidronam) is a radioactive bone-seeking injection that lodges in bone metastases and irradiates them from inside, approved in 1997 to relieve pain from prostate, breast and other cancers spread to bone. Most patients get relief within one to two weeks, but marrow suppression follows at three to five weeks, and radium-223 and PSMA radioligands have largely replaced it.
Sterile talc is puffed or instilled into the chest cavity after fluid is drained to make the lung stick to the chest wall, stopping cancer-related fluid (malignant pleural effusion) from building up again.
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Palliative care is not what happens when treatment stops; it works best alongside cancer treatment from the start. Patients feel better, are less depressed and may live longer. Access remains the constraint: most of the world's patients never see a palliative care specialist.
Query for this technology: (TITLE:"Early integrated palliative care" OR ABSTRACT:"Early integrated palliative care") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about Early integrated palliative care, not a curated reading list.
Shares Nodal marginal zone lymphoma, Splenic marginal zone lymphoma, Nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma (nodular lymphocyte-predominant B-cell lymphoma), Nodal T-follicular helper cell lymphoma, angioimmunoblastic type (angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma) and the tag supportive.
Shares Pain with gallbladder and bile duct cancer, Palliation in colorectal cancer: obstruction, stents, stomas and liver capsule pain, QUARTZ, Anaplastic thyroid cancer and the tag supportive.
Shares Enteral and parenteral nutrition support, Palliation in pancreatic cancer: biliary and duodenal stents, coeliac plexus block, enzymes and cachexia, Supportive care and survivorship roadmap: making treatment bearable → proving it extends life → caring for tens of millions afterwards, Relapsed and refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma and the tag supportive.
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Shares Palliation in advanced triple-negative breast cancer: brain, bone, pleura, skin and end of life, Palliation in lung cancer: breathlessness, pleural effusion, blocked airway, bone and brain, Metastatic cancer (cancer that has spread), Lung cancer (all types) and the tag supportive.
Shares Palliation in pancreatic cancer: biliary and duodenal stents, coeliac plexus block, enzymes and cachexia, Supportive care and survivorship roadmap: making treatment bearable → proving it extends life → caring for tens of millions afterwards, Glioma & glioblastoma, Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and the tag supportive.
Shares Music therapy and music medicine, Massage therapy in cancer care, Cancer pain management, Supportive care and survivorship roadmap: making treatment bearable → proving it extends life → caring for tens of millions afterwards and the tag supportive.
Shares Supportive care and survivorship roadmap: making treatment bearable → proving it extends life → caring for tens of millions afterwards, Advanced-stage classical Hodgkin lymphoma (stage III to IV), Peripheral T-cell lymphomas (including cutaneous T-cell lymphoma), Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and the tag supportive.