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Early specialist palliative care fails to improve QoL in patients undergoing abdominal surgery for cancer: JAMA
![Early specialist palliative care fails to improve QoL in patients undergoing abdominal surgery for cancer: JAMA Early specialist palliative care fails to improve QoL in patients undergoing abdominal surgery for cancer: JAMA](https://medicaldialogues.in/h-upload/2023/05/11/750x450_209370-palliative-care.webp)
USA: A randomized clinical trial involving 235 adults undergoing abdominal surgeries for cancer showed no evidence that a specialist palliative care intervention improves time alive out of the hospital, survival, or quality of life (QoL).
Previous studies have shown that specialist palliative care is beneficial for patients undergoing medical treatment of cancer; however, data are lacking on specialist palliative care is similarly helpful for patients undergoing surgery for cancer. To fill this knowledge gap, Myrick C. Shinall Jr from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, and colleagues aimed to determine the impact of specialist palliative care on patients undergoing surgery for the cure or durable cancer control.
In their study published in JAMA Surgery, the research team addressed whether patients undergoing nonpalliative surgery for cancer should receive early specialist palliative care.
The single-centre RCT was conducted in which patients scheduled for specified intra-abdominal cancer surgery were recruited from an academic urban referral centre. They were randomly assigned in a ratio of 1:1 to the usual care group or the specialist palliative care intervention. Two hundred thirty-five adults (median age 65; 60% were men) undergoing one of eight scheduled nonpalliative abdominal operations for cancer were included. The most common operation was partial hepatectomy, pancreatectomy, and radical cystectomy, and the most common cancers included pancreatic, colorectal, and bladder cancer.
The specialist palliative intervention comprised of preoperative consultation, three follow-up visits or phone calls before e postoperative day 90, inpatient visits twice weekly or more during the postoperative hospital stay, and an inpatient visit if the patient was readmitted. Palliative care included assessing and treating pain, constipation, nausea, delirium, sleep disturbances, psychosocial stress, and immobility.
The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy measured physical and functional QoL at postoperative day (POD) 90–General (FACT-G) Trial Outcome Index (TOI), scored on a range of 0 to 56; a higher score represents higher functional and physical QoL (prespecified primary endpoint). Prespecified secondary endpoints were overall QoL at POD 90 measured by FACT-G, 1-year overall survival, and days alive at home until POD 90.
The study led to the following findings:
- One hundred fourteen patients in the intervention group and one in the usual care group received specialist palliative care.
- Adjusted median scores on the FACT-G TOI measure of functional and physical QoL did not differ between groups (intervention score, 46.77; usual care score, 46.23).
- The intervention vs usual care group odds ratio (OR) was 1.17.
- Palliative care did not improve the overall quality of life measured by the FACT-G score (intervention vs usual care OR, 1.09), days alive at home (OR, 0.87), or 1-year overall survival (hazard ratio, 0.97).
"Our findings showed that early specialist palliative care did not significantly improve outcomes for patients undergoing abdominal operations for cancer," the researchers concluded.
Reference:
Shinall MC, Martin SF, Karlekar M, et al. Effects of Specialist Palliative Care for Patients Undergoing Major Abdominal Surgery for Cancer: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Surg. Published online May 10, 2023. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2023.1396
MSc. Biotechnology
Medha Baranwal joined Medical Dialogues as an Editor in 2018 for Speciality Medical Dialogues. She covers several medical specialties including Cardiac Sciences, Dentistry, Diabetes and Endo, Diagnostics, ENT, Gastroenterology, Neurosciences, and Radiology. She has completed her Bachelors in Biomedical Sciences from DU and then pursued Masters in Biotechnology from Amity University. She has a working experience of 5 years in the field of medical research writing, scientific writing, content writing, and content management. She can be contacted at  editorial@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751
Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: editorial@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751