Advancing Palliative Care Integration in Hematology: Building Upon Existing Evidence

Abstract

Patients with hematologic malignancies and their families are among the most distressed of all those with cancer. Despite high palliative care-related needs, the integration of palliative care in hematology is underdeveloped. The evidence is clear that the way forward Current Treatment Options in Oncology includes standard-of-care PC integration into routine hematologic malignancy care to improve patient and caregiver outcomes. As the PC needs for patients with blood cancer vary significantly by disease, a disease-specific PC integration strategy is needed, allowing for serious illness care interventions to be individualized to the specific needs of each patient and situation.

Utilization and quality of palliative care in patients with hematological and solid cancers: a population-based study

“…In contrast to ST, where PC is often part of treatment guidelines, its integration into HM treatment is incomplete (Mo et al 2020 ). Several barriers have been identified by various authors that hinder the incorporation of PC into the care of patients with HM, including disease-specific, cultural, and systemic factors (El-Jawahri et al 2020 ; Howell et al 2010b ; Odejide et al 2016 ; Robbins-Welty et al 2023 ; Wedding 2021 ). The complex disease course of HM often involves intensive treatments with significant morbidity and mortality, such as high-dose chemotherapy or CAR-T cell therapy.…”

“…These include the possibility of blood transfusions for symptom control even in hospice, continuity of care by hematology teams, consideration of the unpredictability of the disease course, and precise definition of treatment guidelines (Wedding 2021 ; Zimmermann 2016 ). This requires disease-specific integration of PC, as each disease group has different needs, treatment paradigms, and outcomes (Robbins-Welty et al 2023 ).…”

A Review on the Application of Hospice Care in Patients with Advanced Cancer

“…This leads to a gradual loss of the patient "s self-worth, causing the patient" s self-esteem to decline and dignity to be compromised. 4 According to statistics, in 2020, there were 19.29 million new cases of cancer and 10 million deaths each year worldwide. [5][6][7] In China, there were 4.29 million new cancer cases and more than 2.8 million deaths among cancer patients in 2015.…”