Cost Savings Associated With Palliative Care Among Older Adults With Advanced Cancer.

Background: There is inconsistent evidence that palliative care intervention decreases total healthcare expenditure at end-of-life for oncology patients. This inconsistent evidence may result from small sample sizes at single institution studies and disparate characterization of costs across studies. Comprehensive studies in population-based datasets are needed to fully understand the impact of palliative care on total healthcare costs.

A Retrospective Analysis of Pain Burden in Hospitalized Young Adult Cancer Patients Compared with Their Older Adult Counterpart.

Context: Research shows an increased symptom burden in young adult (YA) cancer patients compared with their older adult counterpart.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to identify differences in clinical characteristics and related outcomes between YA and older adult cancer patients admitted for cancer-related pain.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively identified 190 hospitalized patients in a single academic center with admissions for cancer-related pain.

Effect of Palliative Care on Aggressiveness of End-of-Life Care Among Patients With Advanced Cancer.

Purpose: Palliative care's role in oncology has expanded, but its effect on aggressiveness of care at the end of life has not been characterized at the population level.

Methods: This matched retrospective cohort study examined the effect of an encounter with palliative care on health-care use at the end of life among 6,580 Medicare beneficiaries with advanced prostate, breast, lung, or colorectal cancer. We compared health-care use before and after palliative care consultation to a matched nonpalliative care cohort.

Patient-Controlled Analgesia for Cancer-Related Pain: Clinical Predictors of Patient Outcomes.

Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) is an effective approach to treat pain. However, data regarding patterns of PCA use for cancer pain are limited. The purpose of this study was to define the patterns of PCA use and related outcomes in hospitalized patients with cancer.

Patterns of Palliative Care Consultation Among Elderly Patients With Cancer.

Background: The role of palliative care has expanded over the past several decades, although the oncology-specific regional evolution of this specialty has not been characterized at the population-based level.

Methods: This study defined the patterns of palliative care delivery using a retrospective cohort of patients with advanced cancer within the SEER-Medicare linked database. We identified 83,022 patients with metastatic breast, prostate, lung, and colorectal cancers.

Clinical supervision in the palliative care team setting: a concrete approach to team wellness.

Clinical supervision is a structured, case-based approach to learning that is used most often in the mental health field. An established palliative care consultation service at a large, academic medical center implemented a modified clinical supervision model in an effort to improve team members' awareness of their own emotions and the way those emotions impact behavior during, primarily, clinical encounters. This report discusses clinical supervision in detail and, by way of a case, illustrates the power of this intervention as a source of self-care and a concrete approach to managing palliative care team well-being.

Age disparity in palliative radiation therapy among patients with advanced cancer.

Purpose/objective: Palliative radiation therapy represents an important treatment option among patients with advanced cancer, although research shows decreased use among older patients. This study evaluated age-related patterns of palliative radiation use among an elderly Medicare population.

Methods And Materials: We identified 63,221 patients with metastatic lung, breast, prostate, or colorectal cancer diagnosed between 2000 and 2007 from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare linked database.

Palliative radiation before hospice: the long and the short of it.

Context: Randomized data support shorter radiotherapy courses for management of cancer-related symptoms in the palliative setting.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the length of palliative radiotherapy before hospice enrollment among the elderly U.S.

Cost-effectiveness of modern radiotherapy techniques in locally advanced pancreatic cancer.

Background: Radiotherapy may improve the outcome of patients with pancreatic cancer but at an increased cost. In this study, the authors evaluated the cost-effectiveness of modern radiotherapy techniques in the treatment of locally advanced pancreatic cancer.

Methods: A Markov decision-analytic model was constructed to compare the cost-effectiveness of 4 treatment regimens: gemcitabine alone, gemcitabine plus conventional radiotherapy, gemcitabine plus intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT); and gemcitabine with stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT).