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. 2016 Sep 27;7(14):1968-1978.
doi: 10.7150/jca.14634. eCollection 2016.

Early Integration of Palliative Care in Oncology Practice: Results of the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM) Survey

Vittorina Zagonel  1 , Riccardo Torta  2 , Vittorio Franciosi  3 , Antonella Brunello  1 , Guido Biasco  4 , Daniela Cattaneo  5 , Luigi Cavanna  6 , Domenico Corsi  7 , Gabriella Farina  8 , Luisa Fioretto  9 , Teresa Gamucci  10 , Gaetano Lanzetta  11 , Roberto Magarotto  12 , Marco Maltoni  13 , Cataldo Mastromauro  14 , Barbara Melotti  15 , Fausto Meriggi  16 , Ida Pavese  17 , Erico Piva  18 , Cosimo Sacco  19 , Giuseppe Tonini  20 , Leonardo Trentin  21 , Paola Ermacora  19 , Antonella Varetto  2 , Federica Merlin  22 , Stefania Gori  12 , Stefano Cascinu  23 , Carmine Pinto  24 ; AIOM Simultaneous & Continuous Care (SCC) Task Force-ESMO-DCs
Affiliations

Early Integration of Palliative Care in Oncology Practice: Results of the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM) Survey

Vittorina Zagonel et al. J Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: Early integration of palliative care in oncology practice ("simultaneous care", SC) has been shown to provide better care resulting in improved quality-of-life and also survival. We evaluated the opinions of Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM) members.

Patients and methods: A 37-item questionnaire was delivered to 1119 AIOM members. Main areas covered were: social, ethical, relational aspects of disease and communication, training, research, organizational and management models in SC. Three open questions explored the definition of Quality of Life, Medical Oncologist and Palliative Care.

Results: Four hundred and forty-nine (40.1%) medical oncologists returned the questionnaires. Forty-nine percent stated they address non-curability when giving a diagnosis of metastatic tumor, and 43% give the information only to patients who clearly ask for it. Fifty-five percent say the main formative activity in palliative medicine came from attending meetings and 90% agree that specific palliative care training should be part of the core curriculum in oncology. Twenty-two percent stated they consulted guidelines for symptom management, 45% relied upon personal experience and 26% make a referral to a palliative care specialist. Seventy-four percent were in favor of more research in palliative medicine. An integration between Units of Oncology and Palliative Care Services early in the course of advanced disease was advocated by 86%. Diverse and multifaceted definitions were given for the concepts of Quality of Life, Palliative Care and Medical Oncologist.

Conclusion: SC is felt as an important task, as well as training of medical oncologists in symptom management and research in this field.

Keywords: advanced cancer; early palliative care; medical oncology; research.; simultaneous care.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Quality of life definition.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Medical oncologist definition.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Palliative Care definition.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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