A mixed methods randomized control trial assessing the impact of early palliative care incorporation in liver cancer and metastatic colorectal cancer on caregiver well-being, patient physical and psychosocial outcomes, and health services utilization.
The purpose of this project is to conduct a mixed-methods study of the impact of early integration of palliative care in interventional oncology on three outcomes of interest: 1\) caregiver well-being, 2) patient physical and psychosocial outcomes, and 3) health services utilization and costs. Palliative care focuses on providing patients with serious illnesses and their families with physical, emotional, social, practical, and spiritual support. Recent trials examining the integration of palliative care in cancer care have individually shown improvement in patient symptoms and quality of life, reduction of caregiver burden, and/or health services costs. These studies, however, have not collectively analyzed these impacts.Further, a recent study shows that integrating palliative care early in lung cancer care has proven beneficial to both patients and caregivers. Given the potential of this previous body of research, the proposed study offers a comprehensive analysis of the early integration of palliative care on caregiver well-being, patient's physical and psychosocial outcomes when living with liver and metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), and health services utilization. This study thus broadens the scope to additional cancer types and degrees of progression.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
The intervention group- will include 30 patients receiving treatment by the Interventional Radiology team along with their primary caregiver. Patients and caregivers will receive a brief palliative care training intervention during their first follow-up visit. Patients and their caregivers will receive questionnaires to assess their health status (physical and psychosocial) and health services utilization outcomes at 1, 2, and 3 months post-procedure during their follow-up visits.
Changes in Edmonton Symptom Assessment Score (ESAS-R)
Measure the impact of an early palliative care intervention on patient physical and psychosocial outcomes. The early integration of palliative care at diagnosis or immediately post- procedure, will improve patients' physical and psychosocial symptoms. The score of such assessment should decrease from baseline as the result of the intervention.
Time frame: 1, 2 and 3 months
Measure of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance Status
Measure the decrease of the ECOG status as a result of the proposed intervention.
Time frame: 1, 2 and 3 months
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