Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Oct 1;32(4):505-511.
doi: 10.5737/23688076324505. eCollection 2022 Fall.

The early integration of palliative care into oncology care: A rapid review

Asma Fadhlaoui  1 , Hazar Mrad  2 , Billy Vinette  2 , Karine Bilodeau  3
Affiliations

The early integration of palliative care into oncology care: A rapid review

Asma Fadhlaoui et al. Can Oncol Nurs J. .

Abstract

With the number of cancer diagnoses and cancer-related deaths on the rise, palliative care is becoming a more important consideration for helping to improve the quality of life of patients and families and the support they receive during their healthcare journey. Accordingly, the early integration of palliative care into standard oncology care would appear to be an underutilized and novel approach that could be used to address the specific needs of palliative oncology patients. Oncology nurses play a central role in this process, delivering care throughout the health continuum, including palliative care. The purpose of this rapid review is to outline the benefits of early palliative care interventions and describe their characteristics. A literature search on CINAHL and PubMed returned five randomized trials conducted between 2010 and 2018. An analysis of these papers showed that the majority of the selected studies concluded that the early integration of palliative care into standard oncology care, which includes such treatments as chemotherapy and radiation therapy, can lead to improvements in quality of life, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and overall survival rate.

Keywords: cancer; early palliative care; intervention; oncology; palliative care.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose with regard to the writing or publication of this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow Chart
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Addicott R. Delivering better end-of-life care in England: Barriers to access for patients with a non-cancer diagnosis. Health Economics, Policy, and Law. 2012;7(4):441–454. doi: 10.1017/S1744133112000. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Aline S-E, Sylvain B, Jaïs T, Géraldine C, Julien M. Understanding the barriers to introducing early palliative care for patients with advanced cancer: A aualitative study. Journal of Palliative Medicine. 2019;22(5):508–516. doi: 10.1089/jpm.2018.0338. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Association canadienne de soins palliatifs (ACSP/CHPCA) Modèle de soins palliatifs fondé sur les normes de pratique et principes nationaux. 2013. http://acsp.net/adiantsnaturels/repertoire.aspx .
    1. Association canadienne des infirmières en oncologie (ACIO/CANO) Cadre des connaissances et de la pratique en soins infirmiers contre le cancer. 2019. https://www.cano-acio.ca/resource/resmgr/files/CANO-FrameworkFre_Web.pdf .
    1. Bakitas MA, Tosteson TD, Li Z, Lyons KD, Hull JG, Li Z, Dionne-Odom JN, Frost J, Dragnev KH, Hegel MT, Azuero A, Ahles TA. Early versus delayed initiation of concurrent palliative oncology care: Patient outcomes in the ENABLE III: Randomized controlled trial. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2015;33(13):1438–1445. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2014.58.6362. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources