Palliative Care News

Many of us in the oncology and palliative care communities read with great interest the guidelines from the ASCO Ad Hoc Palliative Care Expert Panel on the integration of palliative care within routine oncology care.

The number of prescriptions written for physician-aided deaths in Oregon has increased annually since it became the first state to enact the Death with Dignity Act in 1997, according to a retrospective cohort study published in JAMA Oncology.

Sexual and gender minorities diagnosed with cancer may encounter specific challenges, including discrimination and greater risks for anxiety and depression, according to an ASCO guideline published in Journal of Clinical Oncology.

International and private sector collaboration, as well as the $1.8 billion in federal funding directed toward the NIH as part of the 21st Century Cures Act, are two major accomplishments of the national cancer moonshot initiative achieved in the past year, according to former Vice President Joe Biden.

Functional brain training, known as neurofeedback, effectively reduced symptoms associated with chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, according to a randomized pilot study published in Cancer.

Over the next 10 years, the number of cancer survivors in the United States is expected to grow from 15.5 million to 20.3 million, according to ASCO’s State of Cancer Care in America: 2017 report released today.

The majority of U.S. hematologists–oncologists who use Twitter reported at least one financial conflict of interest made public through the federal Open Payments program, according to study results published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Pediatric oncology patients with high degrees of symptom-related suffering appeared more likely than their parents to acknowledge the benefits of early palliative care, according to survey results.

Bruce E. Johnson, MD, FASCO, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and institute physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, will become president of ASCO during the society’s annual meeting in June.

This month’s top news includes a number of key studies in hematology and oncology.