Advancing the Clinician Educator Career Pathway in Oncology.

Purpose: Education is an important component of cancer care; however, most clinician educators (CEs) receive little formal training in this area. Little is known about the factors that influence oncologists to pursue a career as a CE. The primary objective of this study was to determine the current state of oncologists' perceptions regarding the clinician educator role.

Racial/Ethnic Differences in Inpatient Palliative Care Consultation for Patients With Advanced Cancer.

Purpose: Inpatient palliative care consultation (IPCC) may help address barriers that limit the use of hospice and the receipt of symptom-focused care for racial/ethnic minorities, yet little is known about disparities in the rates of IPCC. We evaluated the association between race/ethnicity and rates of IPCC for patients with advanced cancer.

Patients And Methods: Patients with metastatic cancer who were hospitalized between January 1, 2009, and December 31, 2010, at an urban academic medical center participated in the study.

How well do medical oncologists manage chronic cancer pain? A national survey.

Background: Cancer pain is usually managed by oncologists, occasionally with input from specialists in hospice and palliative medicine (PLM) or pain medicine (PMD). We evaluated the knowledge of cancer pain management in these three specialty groups.

Methods: Eight vignettes depicting challenging scenarios of patients with poorly controlled pain were developed; each had five or six treatment choices.

Developing a service model that integrates palliative care throughout cancer care: the time is now.

Palliative care is a fundamental component of cancer care. As part of the 2011 to 2012 Leadership Development Program (LDP) of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), a group of participants was charged with advising ASCO on how to develop a service model integrating palliative care throughout the continuum of cancer care. This article presents the findings of the LDP group.

Under- or overtreatment of pain in the patient with cancer: how to achieve proper balance.

Achieving balance in the appropriate use of opioids for the treatment of cancer pain is complex. The definition of "balance" is continually being modified. Palliative care professionals, pain specialists, and oncologists have long been advocating for the aggressive management of pain for patients with advanced cancer.

Palliative care training and associations with burnout in oncology fellows.

Background: Burnout among physicians can lead to decreased career satisfaction, physical and emotional exhaustion, and increased medical errors. In oncologists, high exposure to fatal illness is associated with burnout.

Methods: The Maslach Burnout Inventory, measuring Emotional Exhaustion (EE), Depersonalization (DP), and Personal Accomplishment (PA), was administered to second-year US oncology fellows.

Barriers and approaches to the successful integration of palliative care and oncology practice.

As management of patients with cancer is evolving, an increased focus is being placed on individualized patient-centered care. Early integration of palliative care into the overall management of patients with cancer can help achieve this paradigm shift. Despite recommendations for earlier integration of palliative care by national and international societies, several barriers remain to achieving this goal.

Palliative care always.

Palliative cancer care is the integration into oncologic care of therapies that address the issues that cause physical and psychosocial suffering for the patient and family. Effective provision of palliative cancer care requires an interdisciplinary team that can provide care in all settings (home, inpatient, and outpatient). There is clear evidence for improved outcomes in multiple domains-symptoms, quality of end-of-life care, provider satisfaction, cost of care-with the integration of palliative care into cancer care.

Palliative care.

These guidelines were developed and updated by an interdisciplinary group of experts based on clinical experience and available scientific evidence. The goal of these guidelines is to help patients with cancer experience the best quality of life possible throughout the illness trajectory by providing guidance for the primary oncology team for symptom screening, assessment, palliative care interventions, reassessment, and afterdeath care. Palliative care should be initiated by the primary oncology team and augmented by collaboration with an interdisciplinary team of palliative care experts.

American Society of Clinical Oncology provisional clinical opinion: the integration of palliative care into standard oncology care.

Purpose: An American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) provisional clinical opinion (PCO) offers timely clinical direction to ASCO's membership following publication or presentation of potentially practice-changing data from major studies. This PCO addresses the integration of palliative care services into standard oncology practice at the time a person is diagnosed with metastatic or advanced cancer.

Clinical Context: Palliative care is frequently misconstrued as synonymous with end-of-life care.

The integration of palliative care and oncology: the evidence.

Cancer care and palliative care each require a complex multi- and interdisciplinary approach to maximize the care of people with cancer. Recommendations for cancer treatment should both relieve the symptoms of cancer and prevent and treat side effects of anticancer therapy. Unrelieved symptoms not only contribute to worse quality of life but also can reduce a patient's ability to tolerate cancer therapy and may have a negative impact on survival.

Priority symptoms in advanced breast cancer: development and initial validation of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network-Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast Cancer Symptom Index (NFBSI-16).

Objectives: By using methods consistent with recent regulatory guidance on patient-reported outcomes as endpoints in clinical trials, we created a new version of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast Cancer Symptom Index (FBSI), with emphasis on patient input during the development process.

Methods: We obtained input on the most important symptoms to monitor during treatment for stage III or IV breast cancer from 52 patients recruited from National Comprehensive Cancer Network institutions as well as support service organizations. Participating patients shared their top-priority symptoms/concerns through open-ended interviews and symptom checklists.

Clinical cancer advances 2011: Annual Report on Progress Against Cancer from the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

A message from ASCO'S President. It has been forty years since President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act of 1971, which many view as the nation's declaration of the "War on Cancer." The bill has led to major investments in cancer research and significant increases in cancer survival.

Palliative care and the cancer patient: current state and state of the art.

Comprehensive cancer care requires the integration of palliative care practices and principles across the trajectory of the cancer experience. It complements the treatment of curable disease and may be the sole focus of care for those patients with advanced incurable disease. As the incidence of cancer increases worldwide and the burden of cancer rises, especially in low and middle resource countries, the need for palliative care is greater than ever before.

American society of clinical oncology clinical practice guideline update: recommendations on the role of bone-modifying agents in metastatic breast cancer.

Journal of Clinical Oncology recently published ASCO's update to its guideline on the use of bone-modifying agents for patients with bone metastases, the scope of which was narrowed to the use of bone-modifying agents for patients with evidence of bone metastases.

Development and validation of 11 symptom indexes to evaluate response to chemotherapy for advanced cancer.

Recent guidance from the FDA discusses patient-reported outcomes as end points in clinical trials. Using methods consistent with this guidance, the authors developed symptom indexes for patients with advanced cancer. Input on the most important symptoms was obtained from 533 patients recruited from NCCN Member Institutions and 4 nonprofit social service organizations.

American Society of Clinical Oncology executive summary of the clinical practice guideline update on the role of bone-modifying agents in metastatic breast cancer.

Purpose: To update the recommendations on the role of bone-modifying agents in the prevention and treatment of skeletal-related events (SREs) for patients with metastatic breast cancer with bone metastases.

Methods: A literature search using MEDLINE and the Cochrane Collaboration Library identified relevant studies published between January 2003 and November 2010. The primary outcomes of interest were SREs and time to SRE.