ASCO 2024: How Can Palliative Care Help High-Risk MDS Patients?

Dr. Areej El-Jawahri from Massachusetts General Hospital shared findings at the ASCO 2024 conference in June about how palliative care can improve high-risk MDS patients’ quality of life and better prepare them for potential end-of-life care plans. Read a summary of the key findings below.  

What is Palliative Care? 

Palliative care, sometimes referred to as supportive care, is a comprehensive approach to improving a patient’s quality of life while they live alongside a disease. Many patients experience pain related to their disease throughout its course, whether that’s physical, mental, emotional, relationship, financial, or spiritual pain. 

To help alleviate suffering, trained palliative care providers can help you and your loved ones have a better experience by reducing pain through a variety of supportive measures. Palliative care services may include pain-alleviating medicines, assistance with daily tasks, counseling for the patient and family members to reduce emotional suffering, financial planning, and more.

Patients can request that a palliative care professional be added to their healthcare team if they are experiencing pain regularly. Services are available during treatment or when the patient is enrolled in hospice. Palliative care specialists can also support you in end-of-life care plans, aiding you and your family in the case of your passing. 

Click here to learn more about palliative care resources for patients. 

How Did Palliative Care Specialists Help High-Risk MDS Patients in Dr. El-Jawahri’s Study? 

High-risk MDS patients who receive non-intensive chemotherapy often report low quality of life and don’t discuss their end-of-life care preferences with their doctor. This is believed to be because it is not yet standardized for when palliative care specialists are added to a patient’s healthcare team.  

Dr. El-Jawahri assessed what impact adding a palliative care professional to a patient’s healthcare team would have. In the study, high-risk MDS patients met with a palliative care specialist once a month if in an outpatient setting and a minimum of twice a week if admitted to the hospital. 

The study found that patients who met with a palliative care professional: 

• Improved their ability to have timely discussions about end-of-life care preferences
• Experience a better quality of life
• Decreased hospitalizations during the last 30 days of life
• Increased the utilization of hospice

In conclusion, adding a palliative care professional to the healthcare team of high-risk MDS patients on non-intensive chemotherapy improved their quality of life and ability to have timely discussions about end-of-life care preferences. This is important as any measure that can relieve pain for patients is impactful. As well, when patients choose to have the difficult conversation about end-of-life care preferences in case of passing, this preparation can significantly benefit the patient’s loved ones, who often manage affairs if the patient does pass away. We invite you to consider adding a palliative care provider to your healthcare team as soon as possible to gain these benefits. 

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Source

• Multi-site randomized trial of a collaborative palliative and oncology care model for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) receiving non-intensive therapy.