TY - JOUR
T1 - Specialist palliative and end-of-life care for patients with cancer and SARS-CoV-2 infection
T2 - a European perspective
AU - Soosaipillai, Gehan
AU - Wu, Anjui
AU - Dettorre, Gino M.
AU - Diamantis, Nikolaos
AU - Chester, John
AU - Moss, Charlotte
AU - Aguilar-Company, Juan
AU - Bower, Mark
AU - Sng, Christopher C.T.
AU - Salazar, Ramon
AU - Brunet, Joan
AU - Jones, Eleanor
AU - Mesia, Ricard
AU - Jackson, Amanda
AU - Mukherjee, Uma
AU - Sita-Lumsden, Ailsa
AU - Seguí, Elia
AU - Ottaviani, Diego
AU - Carbó, Anna
AU - Benafif, Sarah
AU - Würstlein, Rachel
AU - Carmona, Carme
AU - Chopra, Neha
AU - Cruz, Claudia Andrea
AU - Swallow, Judith
AU - Saoudi, Nadia
AU - Felip, Eudald
AU - Galazi, Myria
AU - Garcia-Fructuoso, Isabel
AU - Lee, Alvin J.X.
AU - Newsom-Davis, Thomas
AU - Wong, Yien Ning Sophia
AU - Sureda, Anna
AU - Maluquer, Clara
AU - Ruiz-Camps, Isabel
AU - Cabirta, Alba
AU - Prat, Aleix
AU - Loizidou, Angela
AU - Gennari, Alessandra
AU - Ferrante, Daniela
AU - Tabernero, Josep
AU - Russell, Beth
AU - Van Hemelrijck, Mieke
AU - Dolly, Saoirse
AU - Hulbert-Williams, Nicholas J.
AU - Pinato, David J.
AU - Mollà, Meritxell
AU - Reyes, Roxana
AU - Marco-Hernández, Javier
AU - Bruna, Riccardo
AU - Biello, Federica
AU - Patriarca, Andrea
AU - Zambelli, Alberto
AU - Tondini, Carlo
AU - Fotia, Vittoria
AU - Chiudinelli, Lorenzo
AU - Franchi, Michela
AU - Generali, Daniele
AU - Grisanti, Salvatore
AU - Tovazzi, Valeria
AU - Bertuzzi, Alexia
AU - Marrari, Andrea
AU - Seeva, Pavetha
AU - Dileo, Palma
AU - Rizzo, Gianpiero
AU - Libertini, Michela
AU - Maconi, Antonio
AU - Betti, Marta
AU - Provenzano, Salvatore
AU - Harbeck, Nadia
AU - Vincenzi, Bruno
AU - Bertulli, Rossella
AU - Liñan, Raquel
AU - Roqué, Ariadna
AU - Mirallas, Oriol
AU - García-Illescas, David
AU - Scotti, Lorenza
AU - Dalla Pria, Alessia
AU - D’Avanzo, Francesca
AU - Martinez, Maria
AU - Evans, Joanne S.
AU - Sharkey, Rachel
AU - Rimassa, Lorenza
AU - Santoro, Armando
AU - Gaidano, Gianluca
AU - Izuzquiza, Macarena
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust Strategic Fund [PS3416] awarded to DJP and by direct project funding from the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) awarded to DJP. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. OnCovid was supported in part by funds from the Cancer Treatment and Research Trust (CTRT) awarded to DJP and from the Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro Foundation [14230] awarded to AG.
Funding Information:
DJP received lecture fees from ViiV Healthcare and Bayer Healthcare and travel expenses from BMS and Bayer Healthcare; consulting fees for Mina Therapeutics, EISAI, Roche, and Astra Zeneca; received research funding (to institution) from MSD and BMS. AP has declared personal honoraria from Pfizer, Novartis, Roche, MSD Oncology, Eli Lilly, and Daiichi Sankyo; travel, accommodations, and expenses paid by Daiichi Sankyo; research funding from Roche and Novartis; and consulting/advisory role for NanoString Technologies, Amgen, Roche, Novartis, Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb. TND has declared consulting/advisory role for Amgen, Bayer, AstraZeneca, BMS, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, MSD, Novartis, Otsuka, Pfizer, Roche, and Takeda; speaker fees from AstraZeneca, MSD, Roche, Takeda; and travel, accommodations and expenses paid by AstraZenca, BMS, Boehringer Ingelheim, Lilly, MSD, Otsuka, Roche, and Takeda. JB has declared consulting/advisory role for MSD and Astra Zeneca. PPS has declared consulting/advisory role for Sanofi and Abbvie. AP has declared consulting/advisory role for Takeda and Sanofi. MP has declared consulting/advisory role for Gilead and Bayer. AG has declared consulting/advisory role for Roche, MSD, Eli Lilly, Pierre Fabre, EISAI, and Daichii Sankyo; speaker’s bureau for Eisai, Novartis, Eli Lilly, Roche, Teva, Gentili, Pfizer, Astra Zeneca, Celgene, and Daichii Sankyo; research funds: EISAI, Eli Lilly, and Roche. LR reports receiving consulting fees from Amgen, ArQule, AstraZeneca, Basilea, Bayer, Celgene, Eisai, Exelixis, Hengrui, Incyte, Ipsen, Lilly, MSD, Nerviano Medical Sciences, Roche, and Sanofi; lecture fees from AbbVie, Amgen, Eisai, Gilead, Incyte, Ipsen, Lilly, Roche, and Sanofi; travel fees from Ipsen; and institutional research funding from Agios, ARMO BioSciences, AstraZeneca, BeiGene, Eisai, Exelixis, Fibrogen, Incyte, Ipsen, Lilly, MSD, and Roche. No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed by other authors.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), 2021.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Background: Specialist palliative care team (SPCT) involvement has been shown to improve symptom control and end-of-life care for patients with cancer, but little is known as to how these have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we report SPCT involvement during the first wave of the pandemic and compare outcomes for patients with cancer who received and did not receive SPCT input from multiple European cancer centres. Methods: From the OnCovid repository (N = 1318), we analysed cancer patients aged ⩾18 diagnosed with COVID-19 between 26 February and 22 June 2020 who had complete specialist palliative care team data (SPCT+ referred; SPCT− not referred). Results: Of 555 eligible patients, 317 were male (57.1%), with a median age of 70 years (IQR 20). At COVID-19 diagnosis, 44.7% were on anti-cancer therapy and 53.3% had ⩾1 co-morbidity. Two hundred and six patients received SPCT input for symptom control (80.1%), psychological support (54.4%) and/or advance care planning (51%). SPCT+ patients had more ‘Do not attempt cardio-pulmonary resuscitation’ orders completed prior to (12.6% versus 3.7%) and during admission (50% versus 22.1%, p < 0.001), with more SPCT+ patients deemed suitable for treatment escalation (50% versus 22.1%, p < 0.001). SPCT involvement was associated with higher discharge rates from hospital for end-of-life care (9.7% versus 0%, p < 0.001). End-of-life anticipatory prescribing was higher in SPCT+ patients, with opioids (96.3% versus 47.1%) and benzodiazepines (82.9% versus 41.2%) being used frequently for symptom control. Conclusion: SPCT referral facilitated symptom control, emergency care and discharge planning, as well as high rates of referral for psychological support than previously reported. Our study highlighted the critical need of SPCTs for patients with cancer during the pandemic and should inform service planning for this population.
AB - Background: Specialist palliative care team (SPCT) involvement has been shown to improve symptom control and end-of-life care for patients with cancer, but little is known as to how these have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we report SPCT involvement during the first wave of the pandemic and compare outcomes for patients with cancer who received and did not receive SPCT input from multiple European cancer centres. Methods: From the OnCovid repository (N = 1318), we analysed cancer patients aged ⩾18 diagnosed with COVID-19 between 26 February and 22 June 2020 who had complete specialist palliative care team data (SPCT+ referred; SPCT− not referred). Results: Of 555 eligible patients, 317 were male (57.1%), with a median age of 70 years (IQR 20). At COVID-19 diagnosis, 44.7% were on anti-cancer therapy and 53.3% had ⩾1 co-morbidity. Two hundred and six patients received SPCT input for symptom control (80.1%), psychological support (54.4%) and/or advance care planning (51%). SPCT+ patients had more ‘Do not attempt cardio-pulmonary resuscitation’ orders completed prior to (12.6% versus 3.7%) and during admission (50% versus 22.1%, p < 0.001), with more SPCT+ patients deemed suitable for treatment escalation (50% versus 22.1%, p < 0.001). SPCT involvement was associated with higher discharge rates from hospital for end-of-life care (9.7% versus 0%, p < 0.001). End-of-life anticipatory prescribing was higher in SPCT+ patients, with opioids (96.3% versus 47.1%) and benzodiazepines (82.9% versus 41.2%) being used frequently for symptom control. Conclusion: SPCT referral facilitated symptom control, emergency care and discharge planning, as well as high rates of referral for psychological support than previously reported. Our study highlighted the critical need of SPCTs for patients with cancer during the pandemic and should inform service planning for this population.
KW - cancer
KW - COVID-19
KW - end-of life care (EOLC)
KW - end-of-life (EOL)
KW - speciality palliative care team (SPCT)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85114159559&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85114159559&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/17588359211042224
DO - 10.1177/17588359211042224
M3 - Article (journal)
AN - SCOPUS:85114159559
SN - 1758-8340
VL - 13
JO - Therapeutic Advances in Medical Oncology
JF - Therapeutic Advances in Medical Oncology
ER -
