[Screening for palliative care needs]

Abstract

According to current guidelines and recommendations, incurable cancer patients should receive palliative care as needed in a structured manner, whether as part of general palliative care (APV) or by referral to palliative care specialists (SPV). State of the art is the screening-based, needs-oriented timely integration of palliative care (APV & SPV, "timely integration"). Prognosis screening is used to identify patients with potential palliative needs in general (APV & SPV). The additional use of validated multidimensional palliative care Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) is recommended to identify patients with SPC-needs.