Analysis of opioid analgesics consumption in Africa: a longitudinal study from a 20-year continental perspective.

Background: Opioid analgesics are essential for managing acute and chronic pain in diseases such as cancer. Inadequate opioid access remains a major public health concern in low-income regions including Africa. This study aimed to provide updated and comprehensive data on changes in opioid consumption, specifically in Africa.

Sedation practices in palliative care services across France: a nationwide point-prevalence analysis.

Objectives: Terminally ill patients may require sedation to relieve refractory suffering. The prevalence and modalities of this practice in palliative care services remain unclear. This study estimated the prevalence of all sedation leading to a deep unconsciousness, whether transitory, with an undetermined duration, or maintained until death, for terminally ill patients referred to a home-based or hospital-based palliative care service.

Duration of palliative care involvement and immunotherapy treatment near the end of life among patients with cancer who died in-hospital.

Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have revolutionised cancer treatment, but their use near the end of life in patients with advanced cancer is poorly documented. This study investigated the association between administration of ICI therapy in the last month of life and the duration of involvement of the palliative care (PC) team, among patients with advanced cancer who died in-hospital.

Methods: In a retrospective, multicentre study, we included all patients who died in 2018 of melanoma, head and neck carcinoma, non-small cell lung cancer or urothelial or renal cancer, in 2 teaching hospitals and one community hospital in France.

Palliative care referral in cancer patients with regard to initial cancer prognosis: a population-based study.

Objectives: More than half of cancer patients require palliative care; however, inequality in access and late referral in the illness trajectory are major issues. This study assessed the cumulative incidence of first hospital-based palliative care (HPC) referral, as well as the influence of patient-, tumor-, and care-related factors.

Study Design: This is a retrospective population-based study.

The Existential Dimension of Palliative Care: The Mirror Effect of Death on Life.

The WHO has included the spiritual dimension in its definition of palliative care since 1990, but this dimension is frequently confused with notions of religion. Yet, the spiritual suffering experienced by palliative care patients is primarily a matter of existential suffering. The objective of this study was to examine the ways in which the existential dimension was manifested in the experiences of those present in a palliative care unit.

Palliative versus hospice care in patients with cancer: a systematic review.

Background: Guidelines recommend an early access to specialised palliative medicine services for patients with cancer, but studies have reported a continued underuse. Palliative care facilities deliver early care, alongside antineoplastic treatments, whereas hospice care structures intervene lately, when cancer-modifying treatments stop.

Aim: This review identified factors associated with early and late interventions of specialised services, by considering the type of structures studied (palliative vs hospice care).

Ketamine analgesic effect by continuous intravenous infusion in refractory cancer pain: considerations about the clinical research in palliative care.

Background: The literature has described the use of ketamine as an adjuvant treatment for opioid-refractory cancer pain. None of these studies have used the drug in a palliative care patient population.

Aims: The primary objective of the study was to assess the efficacy of continuous intravenous infusion of ketamine in patients suffering from cancer pain refractory to opiates who had been admitted to palliative care units.