Integrating Palliative Care Into Cancer Care Means Patients Avoid 'Terrible Choice'; Monograph Highlights Innovative Cancer Models

6/4/2003

From: Karyn Collins of Promoting Excellence in End-of-Life Care, 406-243-6668

MISSOULA, Mont., June 4 -- Too many patients with cancer suffer needlessly at the end of their life. Since 1997, Promoting Excellence in End-of-Life Care, a national program of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has worked to advance the agenda for better end-of-life care. "Living and Dying Well with Cancer: Successfully Integrating Palliative Care and Cancer Treatment," a new monograph from Promoting Excellence in End-of-Life Care, reports on the results of four demonstration projects that tested models of concurrent anti-cancer treatment and palliative care, also known as comfort care, for patients with advanced cancer.

These models challenged the "terrible choice" that patients living with cancer typically face. Under our current care system, patients can either pursue cancer treatments in hopes of extending their lives or they can accept hospice care to relieve symptoms and to provide emotional and spiritual support for them and their families through the end of life.

"These demonstration projects proved that we are dawning on a new era of cancer care," said Dr. Ira Byock, noted palliative care expert and program director of Promoting Excellence in End-of-Life Care. "It is a future in which attention to comfort, quality of life and family support is simply part of comprehensive cancer treatment."

The monograph encourages changes to regulatory and reimbursement structures that support integrated care and culture changes in the fields of oncology and palliative care. In addition, Promoting Excellence in End-of-Life Care recommends the National Cancer Institute assume a central role in advancing palliative care.

"We worked hard to build a platform for future population-based research and policy initiatives to expand access to services and improve quality of life," said Byock. "This base of programmatic experience and early evidence presents both challenges and opportunities that are broadly shared," he added. "Barriers can be overcome with creative, collaborative efforts."

On April 25, 2003, the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship hosted "Living & Dying Well with Cancer: A Community Conversation" at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. The event featured Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, director of the National Cancer Institute, and Dr. Byock discussing the best practices in cancer care and highlighting families and caregivers who have benefited from integrated oncology services with palliative care. To view the web cast, visit http://www.canceradvocacy.org/townhall.html.

For additional outcomes and more detailed information about the demonstration projects, visit http://www.promotingexcellence.org to download a copy of the cancer monograph.