Palliative Care News

Screening identified more patients for referral to a hospital’s palliative care team than normal evaluation, according to findings of a single-center study.

Delirium is common in hospitalized patients with advanced cancer and many factors contribute to its cause, according to findings of a retrospective study.

The American Academy of Pediatrics’ position statement on pediatric palliative care puts forth as one of its recommendations that all physicians who care for children need to become familiar and comfortable with provision of palliative care to children.

When I hear the word “innovation,” too often it is associated only with a technological wonder, such as a new stent or catheter.

In past entries of this column, we have written a lot about what palliative care is, the skills that are required to deliver it and the specific symptom-management guidelines associated with it.

2011 ASTRO Annual Meeting

Those patients who were made aware of imminent death during cancer treatment at the end-of-life did not experience more pain or anxiety in comparison to patients who were unaware of death, according to data from a Swedish study.

Patients and clinicians alike fear the overuse of opioid medications for cancer pain, but the underuse of opioids is much more common.

2011 ASTRO Annual Meeting

Several months ago, Time.com reported on a case of a mother convicted of attempted murder, among other charges, for not administering chemotherapy to her then 7-year-old son, who was autistic, nonverbal, developmentally delayed and also diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The child died as a result of not receiving the chemotherapy prescribed. In court, the mother testified that she couldn’t watch him suffer from effects of toxic drugs, but was also remorseful and stated she wished she could have sought better avenues when caring for him all by herself.