Quality of life for patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer randomised to early specialised home-based palliative care: the ALLAN trial.

Background: The primary aim of specialised palliative care (SPC) is to improve the quality of life (QoL) for patients with a high symptom burden from a life-threatening disease. This randomised study aimed to assess the QoL impact of early integration of SPC alongside tumour-specific palliative treatment in patients with gastrointestinal (GI) cancers.

Methods: We randomly assigned ambulatory patients with advanced GI cancer to early integration of SPC and palliative tumour-specific treatment or tumour-specific treatment alone. The primary endpoint was QoL assessed at baseline and every sixth week using the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) questionnaire.

Results: A total of 118 patients were randomised. The difference in total FACT-G score between patients assigned to early integration with SPC and controls was 5.2 points (95% CI: -0.1 to 10.5, p = 0.216), 6.7 points (95% CI: 0.2 to 13.3, p = 0.172), and 13 points (95% CI: 5.7 to 20.2, p = 0.004) at weeks 6, 12, and 24, respectively.

Conclusions: This prospective randomised trial strengthens the argument for early integration of SPC with tumour-specific treatment in patients with advanced GI cancers. We found an improved QoL for patients with advanced GI cancer 24 weeks after randomisation to early integration of home-based SPC.

Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov (ref: NCT02246725).