Tongue edema as an adverse drug reaction to low-dose olanzapine in a cancer patient receiving palliative care.

Objectives: Olanzapine is an atypical neuroleptic indicated for treatment of various psychiatric disorders, but it has also several indications in palliative care (PC) patients: opioids misuse, nausea not related to chemotherapy, anorexia-cachexia syndrome, and sleep and mood disorders. Peripheral and facial edema are a rare side effect of the treatment with olanzapine. I report a case of an advanced cancer patient cared receiving PC who developed moderate tongue edema on day 1 of a low dose of olanzapine.

'Now I can train myself to be with death': a phenomenological study with young doctors in care homes supported by a palliative care unit during the second wave of the pandemic in Italy.

Objective: During the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the organisational strategies established by the Italian National Health System was the special units for continuity of care (SUCCs). In the province of Ravenna, those units enrolled novice doctors to care for elderly patients with COVID-19 in care homes (CHs). The local palliative care (PC) unit decided to offer consultations and support to them.

[Overview and symptom management in heart failure patients eligible for palliative care].

Burden symptom in advanced heart failure highly affects quality of life of both patients and caregivers, leading to severe functional limitation and social isolation. Symptoms in the advanced phases of the disease are numerous and often underestimated and undertreated. This negatively affects not only quality of life, but also increases hospitalizations, reduces therapeutic adherence, impairs cardiac function and leads to reduced survival.

[Palliative care and heart failure: some remarks about cost-effectiveness and clinical results].

Early palliative care (PC) clearly demonstrated its efficacy in patients with heart failure (HF), reducing symptom burden, mainly pain and depression, improving quality of life, and reducing the access to the health care system. However, there are not conclusive data on economic cost reduction. The reasons are related to the few patients involved in the studies dedicated to this topic, to the different clinical settings, different modalities of provision and funding of PC, and different timing of PC implementation.

Delirium Rates in Advanced Cancer Patients Admitted to Different Palliative Care Settings: Does It Make the Difference?

Delirium in advanced cancer inpatient ranges between 13% and 85%. Reasons for this variability on the reported data could be related to the setting where they are admitted. This is an observational, comparative, prospective study on delirium diagnosis and delirium course of advanced cancer inpatients in two different palliative care settings.

Palliative care for people living with heart failure: European Association for Palliative Care Task Force expert position statement.

Contrary to common perception, modern palliative care (PC) is applicable to all people with an incurable disease, not only cancer. PC is appropriate at every stage of disease progression, when PC needs emerge. These needs can be of physical, emotional, social, or spiritual nature.

The Path of Cicely Saunders: The "Peculiar Beauty" of Palliative Care.

This paper is aimed at focusing on the writings and the experience of the Hospice movement Founder, Dame Cicely Saunders. The in-depth analysis carried out had the objective of verifying if "the way" of Cicely to understand, live and propose palliative care was still current and "beautiful", so that we can nowadays refer to her fascinating "Original Palliative Care". With "beauty" we mean, on the one hand, a way able to allow a personal path of research of the meaning of the disease and of the care, both for those who care and for those who are cared for.

[Palliative care in the cardiac setting: a consensus document of the Italian Society of Cardiology/Italian Society of Palliative Care (SIC/SICP)].

Palliative care is recognized as an approach that improves quality of life of patients and families facing life-threatening illnesses. This is achieved through prevention, early identification, assessment and treatment of symptoms and other psycho-social, spiritual and economic issues. Palliative care is not dependent on prognosis and can be delivered as "simultaneous care", together with disease-modifying treatments and adequate symptom relief.

The 'surprise' question in advanced cancer patients: A prospective study among general practitioners.

Background: Using the 'surprise' question 'Would you be surprised if this patient died in the next year?' may improve physicians' prognostic accuracy and identify people appropriate for palliative care.

Aim: Determine the prognostic accuracy of general practitioners asking the 'surprise' question about their patients with advanced (stage IV) cancer.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Using sociodrama and psychodrama to teach communication in end-of-life care.

End-of-life discussions can be stressful and can elicit strong emotions in the provider as well as the patient and family. In palliative care, understanding and effectively addressing emotions is a key skill that can enhance professional competency and patient/family satisfaction with care. We illustrate how in coursework for a Master's degree in palliative medicine we used dramatic "action methods" derived from sociodrama and psychodrama in the portrayal of two challenging cases to train providers in the emotional aspects of caring for patients with advanced cancer.

Human myeloma cells stimulate the receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappa B ligand (RANKL) in T lymphocytes: a potential role in multiple myeloma bone disease.

The biologic mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of multiple myeloma (MM) bone disease are not completely understood. Recent evidence suggests that T cells may regulate bone resorption through the cross-talk between the critical osteoclastogenetic factor, receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappaB ligand (RANKL), and interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) that strongly suppresses osteoclastogenesis. Using a coculture transwell system we found that human myeloma cell lines (HMCLs) increased the expression and secretion of RANKL in activated T lymphocytes and similarly purified MM cells stimulated RANKL production in autologous T lymphocytes.