Stepped palliative care for patients with advanced lung cancer

JAMA

2024-06-02

(Press-News.org) About The Study: A stepped-care model, with palliative care visits occurring only at key points in patients’ cancer trajectories and using a decrement in quality of life to trigger more intensive palliative care exposure, resulted in fewer palliative care visits without diminishing the benefits for patients’ quality of life. While stepped palliative care was associated with fewer days in hospice, it is a more scalable way to deliver early palliative care to enhance patient-reported outcomes.

Quote from corresponding author Jennifer S. Temel, M.D.:

“This study demonstrates that early palliative care can be effectively tailored to a patient’s cancer and care needs to maximize their quality of life while utilizing fewer palliative care resources. Implementing this patient-centered approach to delivering early palliative care will allow more patients to access essential early palliative care services.

“These findings are especially salient as patients with advanced cancer are now living longer while being treated with life-long cancer therapies, so a tailored palliative care model enables greater dissemination of palliative care services while ensuring patients receive the care they need when they need it.

“This research continues to grow the evidence base that early palliative care is a necessary and integral component of cancer care for patients diagnosed with advanced cancer and provides data on how to increase the number of patients who can access this essential service.”

Contact information for Jennifer S. Temel, M.D.: email jtemel@mgh.harvard.edu.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jama.2024.10398)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

# # #

Media advisory: This study is being presented at the 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting.

Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article This link will be live at the embargo time https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/10.1001/jama.2024.10398?guestAccessKey=6d013912-6999-410b-8311-aa32d7baabba&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=060224

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Trial reveals benefits of ‘stepped’ palliative care for patients with advanced lung cancer

2024-06-02

BOSTON – A new study led by investigators from Mass General Cancer Center, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, reveals the effectiveness of more scalable ways of delivering palliative care to patients with advanced lung cancer. The findings were highlighted at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting and are published in JAMA. The study, led by Jennifer S. Temel, MD of the Mass General Cancer Center, assessed the effectiveness of stepped palliative care, in which all patients receive palliative care for their condition, but with a minimum of required contact with a specialty-trained clinician. ...

Socioeconomic status influences genetic risk for many complex diseases

2024-06-02

Berlin, Germany: Differences in socioeconomic status (SES) are known to be linked to differences in the risk of developing disease. While people with lower SES are more likely to develop complex diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, those with a higher SES are at increased risk of developing certain types of cancer. Using biobank and national register data, researchers from Finland have now found that people with lower SES (educational achievement and occupation) have a greater genetic susceptibility to develop many other complex diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lung cancer, depression, and alcohol ...

ASCO: New ‘Armored’ CAR produces significant responses in patients whose cancers don't respond to current CAR T cell therapies

2024-06-01

CHICAGO – While CAR T cell therapy has revolutionized treatment for many blood cancers, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), many patients who receive CAR T cell therapy do not experience a long-term remission. For those whose cancers return or become resistant after CAR T cell therapy, the prognosis is poor, with few options left. A new “armored” form of CAR T cell therapy, developed by Carl June, MD, the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University ...

People with well-controlled, long-duration type 1 diabetes may still face high risk of heart disease

2024-06-01

BOSTON—People who have had type 1 diabetes for more than 50 years without kidney complications may still be at substantial risk for heart disease, despite excellent control of blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels, according to a study presented Saturday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. Heart disease is a major cause of death in people with type 1 diabetes, especially in those who develop kidney complications from diabetes. “As people with type 1 diabetes live longer due to improved medical care, a substantial proportion of these patients survive without kidney complications, but are still at high risk for heart ...

GLP-1 medications for type 2 diabetes and obesity may lower risk of acute pancreatitis

2024-06-01

BOSTON—Medications for type 2 diabetes and obesity known as GLP-1 receptor agonists may lower the risk of acute pancreatitis recurrence in people with obesity and those with type 2 diabetes, according to a study presented Saturday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. Doctors have been cautious about prescribing these medications in patients with a history of pancreatitis due to the potential risk of worsening the condition – a warning that is included in prescribing information, said lead researcher Mahmoud Nassar, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Medicine ...

Anti-obesity medication tirzepatide remains effective even for those with diabetes and other complications

2024-06-01

BOSTON—Having medical conditions linked to obesity does not impact the total weight loss achieved with the anti-obesity medication tirzepatide, according to an industry-supported study being presented Saturday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. Obesity causes or worsens over 200 diseases. It has been widely believed that when patients suffer multiple medical problems, they are not able to lose as much weight as those without medical issues. The new study, funded by tirzepatide maker Eli Lilly Inc., was designed to see if having more obesity-associated ...

Risk for heart attack and stroke increases in people with obesity for a decade or more

2024-06-01

BOSTON—People under age 50 have a greater risk for heart attack or stroke if they’ve lived with obesity for 10 years, according to industry-sponsored research being presented Saturday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. “It is well established that people who have excess weight at any point in time have a greater risk of heart attacks and strokes. What was not known was whether it matters for how long someone has been exposed to excess weight,” said Alexander Turchin, M.D., M.S., Director of Quality at the Division of Endocrinology at Brigham & Women’s ...

Asian patients more likely to develop type 2 diabetes 1 year after prediabetes diagnosis compared to white and Black patients

2024-06-01

BOSTON—One year after a prediabetes diagnosis, Asians were more likely to develop diabetes mellitus whereas Black patients were more likely to remain in prediabetes range, highlighting racial disparities in diabetes prevention, according to data presented at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. “Every year a small proportion of patients with prediabetes will progress to diabetes mellitus with some proportion of patients reverting to normal glucose levels,” said Ewelina Niedzialkowska, M.D., an internal medicine resident at Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital, in Royal Oak, Mich. “While diet, lifestyle ...

Synthetic estrogen associated with increased anxiety-like behaviors in a rat model

2024-06-01

BOSTON—The type of estrogen in hormonal birth control may influence anxiety-like behaviors, according to data presented by Abigail Hegwood, M.S., from the Prakapenka Lab at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. “It is plausible that estrogen type is a key player in mood or cognitive related side effects of hormone-based contraceptive use,” said Alesia Prakapenka, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Biomedical Sciences program at Midwestern University in Downers Grove, Ill. According to the CDC, 12.6% of women in the United States between the ages of 15 and 49 reported using oral contraceptives from ...

Revolutionizing robotics: A breakthrough in soft actuator technology

2024-06-01

In an era where robotics are increasingly becoming a part of everyday life, a significant breakthrough has been made by a team of researchers at Zhe jiang University, China. Their latest creation, a wrist-inspired soft actuator capable of bidirectional torsion, promises to transform the landscape of soft robotics. The innovative design of this actuator, described in detail in the journal Cyborg Bionic Systems, is inspired by the human wrist's ability to perform complex movements. Unlike traditional robotic mechanisms that rely on rigid components, this soft actuator utilizes a magneto-pneumatic hybrid system combined with a Kresling origami structure. This design allows for an astonishing ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

AI finds undiagnosed liver disease in early stages

The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announce new research fellowship in malaria genomics in honor of professor Dominic Kwiatkowski