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Palliative care abstracts increased in prevalence at ASTRO annual meetings

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2011 ASTRO Annual Meeting

MIAMI – Over the past 10 years, the number of symptom control and palliative care abstracts submitted to the ASTRO annual meeting has increased. However, opportunities for further investigations remain, according to researchers from the University of Pennsylvania.

Previously, palliative care abstracts have constituted a minor proportion of submissions to the ASTRO annual meeting, but over the last 10 years the dedication to palliative radiation oncology topics has increased, according to the researchers, who aimed to determine the trends in palliative care and symptom control research in the context of the annual meeting.

The researchers reviewed the number of author-designated “palliative care” abstracts submitted to ASTRO from 2004 to 2010. The abstracts were classified by study type, measured endpoints, radiotherapy intent, anatomic site treated, symptoms palliated, country of origin and type of radiotherapy used. Additionally, abstracts accepted from 2001 to 2010 were examined to determine whether they dealt with symptom control or palliative care.

From 2004 to 2010, the number of abstracts designated “palliative care” increased from six to 22. As a proportion of total abstracts, palliative care abstracts ranged from 0.5% in 2005 to 1.3% in 2008; only 4% of which contained data from randomized, clinical trials. Pain relief after external beam radiotherapy was the most commonly measured endpoint.

More than half of abstracts submitted were from authors outside of the United States (61%) and 40% came from Canada.

After conducting a more exhaustive review of more than 11,000 abstracts accepted at ASTRO since 2001, the researchers determined that, compared with the topic index, more abstracts (up to 4.3%) focused on radiotherapy with palliative intent or symptom control. Areas such as the use of stereotactic radiotherapy for palliation, outcomes from rapid access radiotherapy programs, the use of screening tools to help predict burdensome symptoms, increased attention to symptom management during definitive radiotherapy and prognostic tools to refine estimates of life expectancy were among those areas of increasing representation among palliative care abstracts at ASTRO, the researchers wrote.

“There has been growth in research about palliative care and symptom management within the field of radiation oncology over the past 10 years, yes significant opportunities for further investigations remain,” the researchers wrote. “Palliative radiotherapy will continue to be an important area of investigation to promote compassionate, personalized care for patients with locally advanced and metastatic cancer.”

For more information:

• Jones JA. Abstract #2907. Presented at: 2011 ASTRO Annual Meeting; Oct. 2-6, 2011; Miami.

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.

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