Julie McDonald|Nadia Swami|Breffni Hannon|Christopher Lo|Ashley Pope|A. Oza|Natasha B. Leighl|Monika K. Krzyzanowska|Gary Rodin|Lisa W. Le|Camilla Zimmermann
Impact of early palliative care on caregivers of patients with advanced cancer: cluster randomised trial
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre|University Health Network|University of Toronto|Princess Margaret Cancer Centre|University Health Network|Princess Margaret Cancer Centre|University Health Network|University of Toronto|Princess Margaret Cancer Centre|University Health Network|University of Toronto|Princess Margaret Cancer Centre|University Health Network|University of Toronto|University of Toronto|University of Toronto|Campbell Institute|University Health Network|University of Toronto|Family Research Institute|Princess Margaret Cancer Centre|Princess Margaret Cancer Centre|University Health Network|Campbell Institute|Family Research Institute|Princess Margaret Cancer Centre|University Health Network|University of Toronto
backgroundearly palliative care improves quality life qol satisfaction care patients advanced cancer little known effect caregivers report outcomes caregiver satisfaction care qol trial early palliative carepatients methodstwentyfour medical oncology clinics clusterrandomised stratified tumour site lung gastrointestinal genitourinary breast gynaecological early palliative care team referral standard oncology care palliative care needed caregivers patients advanced cancer clinical prognosis 624 months eastern cooperative oncology group 02 trial arms completed validated measures assessing satisfaction care famcare19 qol sf36v2 health survey caregiver qolcancer cqolc baseline monthly 4 months used multilevel linear randomintercept mixedeffect model test whether improvement intervention group relative control group 3 4 monthsresultsa total 182 caregivers completed baseline measures 94 intervention 88 control 151 caregivers 77 intervention 74 control completed least one followup assessment satisfaction care improved palliative intervention group compared controls 3 months p 0007 4 months p 002 significant improvement intervention group compared controls cqolc 3 months p 092 4 months p 051 physical component summary sf36v2 health survey 3 months p 083 4 months p 020 mental component summary sf36v2 health survey 3 months p 087 4 months p 060conclusionearly palliative care increased satisfaction care caregivers patients advanced cancerclinicaltrialsgov identifiernct01248624