Journal: Cancer
This article reviews recent progress in palliative and supportive care within oncology, focusing on how to improve timely and equitable access, scale services, and integrate them into routine cancer care.
Key points:
- Palliative care as core cancer care: Palliative care is framed as a core component of high-quality cancer care, aimed at reducing suffering, managing symptoms, and improving quality of life throughout the disease course—not just at end of life.
- Ongoing barriers: Persistent barriers include delayed or inconsistent referral, limited workforce capacity, and inequities in who receives specialty palliative services.
- Recent advances emphasize:
- Technology and workflows: Use of technology (e.g., digital tools, remote platforms) and optimized workflows to make palliative care delivery more efficient and scalable.
- Broader service expansion: Expansion of palliative and supportive care services across a broader range of cancer types and stages, not restricted to advanced disease only.
- Symptom-targeted treatments: Development and refinement of treatments targeting complex cancer-related symptoms (pain, fatigue, other distressing symptoms).
- Systematic symptom monitoring: Growing use of technology for systematic symptom monitoring to detect and address issues earlier.
Overall, the article highlights a trajectory toward more accessible, technology-enabled, and evidence-based palliative and supportive care aimed at preventing or relieving avoidable suffering for people with cancer.