Relationships among clinicians are crucial to successful palliative care integration: a qualitative study in lung cancer.

Palliative care integration improves quality of life among patients with lung cancer and their families. Despite these benefits, significant barriers persist and patients do not receive timely integration. This study sought to identify facilitators of and barriers to integration in lung cancer care.

Association of Palliative Care Use and Setting With Health-care Utilization and Quality of Care at the End of Life Among Patients With Advanced Lung Cancer.

Background: Palliative care is associated with improved survival and quality of life among patients with lung cancer; however, its influence on health-care utilization and quality of care is unclear.

Research Question: Is palliative care, and the setting in which it occurs, associated with health-care resource utilization and quality of care among patients with advanced lung cancer?

Study Design And Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of 23,142 patients with stage IIIB/IV lung cancer in the Veterans Affairs HealthCare System between 2007 and 2013. Exposures included the receipt of specialist-delivered palliative care, and the setting of the initial palliative care encounter (inpatient or outpatient) received after cancer diagnosis.

Association of Early Palliative Care Use With Survival and Place of Death Among Patients With Advanced Lung Cancer Receiving Care in the Veterans Health Administration.

Importance: Palliative care is a patient-centered approach associated with improvements in quality of life; however, results regarding its association with a survival benefit have been mixed, which may be a factor in its underuse.

Objective: To assess whether early palliative care is associated with a survival benefit among patients with advanced lung cancer.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This retrospective population-based cohort study was conducted among patients with lung cancer who were diagnosed with cancer between January 1, 2007, and December 31, 2013, with follow-up until January 23, 2017.