Jul 28, 2022
We are fortunate today to interview two oncologists whose research has catapulted palliative care forward: Jennifer Temel, author of the landmark NEJM study on early outpatient palliative care for patients with advanced lung cancer; and Areej El-Jawahri, author of the landmark JAMA article on inpatient palliative care for patients with blood cancers undergoing stem cell transplant.
Jennifer’s study is most widely known for the “kicker” - not only did it improve quality of life, palliative care was associated with a couple months longer survival.
Areej’s study is remarkably novel in that it is, to our knowledge, the first study of palliative care during curative treatment.
We cover a huge amount of ground today, including:
- Jennifer’s reaction when she unblinded the study and found that palliative care was associated with prolonged life
- Differences between inpatient and outpatient palliative care for cancer
- What’s in the secret sauce of palliative care? (hint: coping)
- What’s the right dose of palliative care?
- Do we need separate palliative care models for each cancer?
- What is next for these two?
- Celine Dion
Additional links:
- Editorial on Areej’s study
- Palliative care in lung and GI cancers
- GeriPal post on qualitative study of the Temel RCT
- GeriPal post on “fast food” style palliative care in chronic critical illness
- JAMA paper on remote symptom monitoring in cancer