text_1: Palliative Care Consults for Patients with Advanced Cancers Reduces Hospitalization and Improves Quality of Care
text_2: This news release reports results of a study that found that patients with advanced cancers who were referred early to palliative care made better use of support services, including palliative chemotherapy, after being discharged and had fewer hospital re-admissions and invasive treatments. Researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital obtained their data through a prospective cohort study (one that follows a group of patients over time to observe specific outcomes). Unfortunately, the absolute numbers — readily available in the study — showing the results were not included in the news release. But the release does provide good context in other areas, particularly in explaining what palliative care is and what it entails for patients. In an era when ethical and economic issues surrounding end-of-life care loom increasingly large, this study addresses a critical issue. As the release points out, palliative care has positive implications for emotional and other quality of life issues for patients. In contrast, extensive time spent on acute-care hospital wards and intensive care units, or receiving invasive procedures, drives up costs and is frequently in conflict with patients’ explicitly expressed wishes. That being the case, it is all the more important that a news release about this issue provide the information readers need to judge the quality of the research method and put the results in context. As the authors of the journal article state: “Our findings are particularly important because multiple studies suggest that patients with advanced cancer often do not understand their actual prognosis or goals of chemotherapy; when they do not, these patients are more likely to receive nonbeneficial interventions, which contribute to increased suffering.” Many patients with advanced cancer are classic cases of those who receive too much care, which is of no benefit. Not only that, it adds to their pain, anxiety, and degrades their and their families quality of life. Its costs can be exorbitant, with some chemotherapy drugs costly upwards of $15,000 per month.