Palliative Care News

• Do You Talk to Your Patients About Advance Care Planning? A new report found that less than 3% of physicians are using ACP codes for Medicare beneficiaries.
  Medscape Reader Polls, April 2019
• 'Concerning' Sociodemographic Disparities in End-of-Life Care for Kids Neighborhood income and race/ethnicity are tied to the intensity of end-of-life care in U.S. children with complex chronic conditions, researchers report.
  Reuters Health Information, April 2019
• Doctors Need to Do Better at Talking to Families About Critically Ill Patients Doctors' conversations with families about care for critically ill patients often fail to address patients' values and preferences, according to a study that suggests there's plenty of room for improvements in communication.
  Reuters Health Information, April 2019
• Preventive Drugs Could Be Safely Discontinued in Elderly With Advanced Cancer Many preventive drugs could be safely discontinued, with substantial cost savings, in the last year of life of older adults with cancer, according to a retrospective study of Swedish data.
  Reuters Health Information, April 2019
• Parenteral-Opioid Shortage Linked to Worse Pain Control in Palliative-Care Patients Patterns of opioid prescribing in palliative care changed significantly after the parenteral-opioid shortage was announced, and patients were less likely to achieve clinically improved pain, according to new findings.
  Reuters Health Information, March 2019
• Not 'Either/Or' but Both: Cancer Therapy and Hospice Care Allowing hospice care without restricting active cancer treatment was associated with less aggressive medical interventions and significantly lower medical costs.
  Medscape Medical News, March 2019
• EBMT 2019Palliative Care Should Start at Diagnosis for HSCT Patients For patients undergoing stem cell transplants for cancer, palliative care should be introduced at diagnosis to provide care focused on the person, argues an expert.
  Medscape Medical News, March 2019
• Many Catholic Hospitals Fail to Disclose Religious Affiliation, Restrictions Online Patients should know if the hospital they choose will restrict their care for religious reasons, but among nearly 650 Catholic hospitals in the U.S., a new study finds that one in five don't explicitly disclose this information on their websites.
  Reuters Health Information, March 2019
• Program Improves Communication Between Oncology Clinicians and Patients The Serious Illness Care Program helps oncologists have better serious-illness conversations with patients without creating anxiety or depression, according to results of a cluster-randomized clinical trial.
  Reuters Health Information, March 2019
• Fluorouracil Plus Calcipotriene May Help Refractory Extramammary Paget Disease In patients who fail other therapies for extramammary Paget disease (EMPD), palliative therapy with topical fluorouracil and calcipotriene may be an option, a small case series suggests.
  Reuters Health Information, March 2019
• Checkpoint Inhibitors Seem Safe Against Cancer in HIV Patients In HIV-infected patients with a variety of advanced cancers, immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) appear to be effective and add no new risks, according to a new systematic review.
  Reuters Health Information, February 2019
• Treatment Not Needed for DVT in Very Advanced Cancer Patients Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is seen in about a third of patients with very advanced cancer, but its presence is not associated with significant symptoms or survival.
  Medscape Medical News, February 2019
• Hospitals Serving More Minorities May Offer Less Palliative Care Patients may have less access to palliative care at U.S. hospitals that primarily serve minorities, a study suggests.
  Reuters Health Information, February 2019
• Aspirin, Anticoagulants Up Rate of False Positives With FIT for Colorectal Cancer Regular use of aspirin or anticoagulants reduces the positive predictive value (PPV) of fecal immunochemical testing (FIT) for detecting colorectal cancer and advanced adenomas, researchers from Norway report.
  Reuters Health Information, February 2019
• How Do You Handle Tough Conversations With Your Patients? Although many physicians believe it is their duty to talk about prognosis and life expectancy, many patients don't want to have that discussion.
  Medscape Reader Polls, February 2019
• Progress in Rare Cancers Is ASCO Advance of the Year Progress in the treatment of several rare types of cancer has been highlighted as clinical cancer advances of the past year.
  Medscape Medical News, February 2019
• Tool Does Not Help Care Decisions in Prolonged Life Support A Web-based decision aid did not help surrogate decision makers and clinicians agree on treatment goals for patients on prolonged mechanical ventilation.
  Medscape Medical News, January 2019
• GICS 2019New Standard of Care in PD-L1+ Esophageal Cancer? Patients with advanced esophageal cancer who have a high level of PD-L1 showed improved survival on poembrolizumab compared to standard chemotherapy.
  Medscape Medical News, January 2019
• AAN Calls for Uniform Definition of Brain Death The academy says a specific, uniform standard for the determination of brain death is critical to provide the highest quality patient-centered neurologic and end-of-life care.
  Medscape Medical News, January 2019
• Palliative-care Patients Perform Worse on Tests of Driving Safety Neurocognitive testing along with a road test or simulated driving test are the best approach to gauging whether palliative care patients can drive safely, according to a new review.
  Reuters Health Information, December 2018