Patients live longer with palliative care

Quality of life for lung cancer patients improved

A new study released by The New England Journal of Medicine found that among patients with non-small-cell lung cancer, those who received palliative care lived, on average, almost two months longer than those who received standard care.¹ Researchers also found that the patients receiving palliative care reported a higher quality of life through the final course of their illness.

Researchers randomly assigned patients with newly diagnosed metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer to two groups: standard oncologic care and early palliative care integrated with standard oncologic care. Quality of life and mood were assessed at the start of the study and at 12 weeks to determine the change in the quality of life in each of the groups.

Of the 151 patients in the study, 27 died by 12 weeks and 107 (86% of the remaining patients) completed assessments. Patients assigned to early palliative care had a better quality of life than did patients assigned to standard. Fewer patients in the palliative care group (16%) than in the standard care group (38%) had depressive symptoms. Despite the fact that fewer patients in the early palliative care group than in the standard care group received aggressive end-of-life care (33% vs. 54%), median survival was longer among patients receiving early palliative care. Patients receiving early palliative care survived 11.6 months, compared to 8.9 months survival for patients receiving standard care.

Reference

1. Temel JS, Greer JA, Muzikansky A, et al. Early palliative care for patients with metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer. N Engl J Med 2010;363:733-742.