Trends in Early Palliative Care for Patients with Advanced Cancers in the US (2010-2019)
A study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting by Xin Hu, PhD, MSPH, et al. analyzed trends in integrating early palliative care among Medicare beneficiaries with newly diagnosed advanced cancers (2010 to 2019). Findings include that early palliative care use increased from 0.98% to 10.64% during this time period, but utilization remained low overall. Additionally, researchers found variation in early palliative care adoption between clinicians and organizations, indicating the need for further research into modifiable factors affecting PC utilization.