Palliative care for patients with hematologic malignancies: are we meeting patients’ needs early enough?

Advancing Palliative Care Integration in Hematology: Building Upon Existing Evidence

“…Fewer than half of these patients received PC consultation and even fewer were referred to hospice [ 95 ]. As newer treatments bring improved prognosis for both types of lymphoma, patients are increasingly having to contend with issues of survivorship including persistent physical symptoms, post-traumatic stress, and financial toxicity [ 38 ].…”

“…Further research is needed to identify the optimal approach to PC integration in lymphoma care. We suspect that lymphoma patients may benefit from symptom screening, advance care planning, and an extra layer of support at numerous time points throughout the disease course [ 38 ].…”

“…Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapy is an exciting new treatment which is approved for specific hematologic malignancy management, specifically MM, B cell NHL, or ALL [ 38 ]. CAR T cell therapy represents a largely unexplored area of palliative-hemato-oncologic care.…”

“…CAR T cell therapy carries a risk for cytokine release syndrome, neurotoxicity, and other physical symptoms from treatment including pain, fatigue, and anorexia which may last months after treatment [ 38 , 100 ]. Early studies of CAR T cell therapy show that these patients experience substantial healthcare utilization, especially at the end-of-life.…”

“…While high-quality evidence supports the integration of PC in oncology, many barriers exist [37][38][39][40]. Most randomized clinical trials of PC integration have excluded patients with HM.…”