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Palliative Cancer Care in the Outpatient Setting: Which Model Works Best?

  • Palliative and Supportive Care (MP Davis, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Opinion statement

Multiple randomized controlled trials have underscored the importance of timely referral to palliative care for patients with advanced cancer. Outpatient palliative care can facilitate timely referral and is increasingly available in many cancer centers. The key question is which model of outpatient palliative care is optimal. There are currently many variations for how palliative care is delivered in the outpatient setting, including (1) Interdisciplinary Specialist Palliative Care in Stand-Alone Clinics, (2) Physician-Only Specialist Palliative Care in Stand-Alone Clinics, (3) Nurse-Led Specialist Palliative Care in Stand-Alone Clinics, (4) Nurse-Led Specialist Palliative Care Telephone-Based Interventions, (5) Embedded Specialist Palliative Care with Variable Team Makeup, and (6) Advanced Practice Providers-Based Enhanced Primary Palliative Care. It is important to make a clear distinction among these delivery models of outpatient palliative care because they have different structures, processes, and outcomes, along with unique strengths and limitations. In this review article, we will provide a critical appraisal of the literature on studies investigating these models. At this time, interdisciplinary specialist palliative care in stand-alone clinics remains the gold standard for ambulatory palliative care because this approach has the greatest impact on multiple patient and caregiver outcomes. Although the other models may require fewer resources, they may not be able to provide the same level of comprehensive palliative care as an interdisciplinary team. Further research is needed to evaluate the optimal model of palliative care delivery in different settings.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Palliative Care, Rehabilitation and Integrative Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Unit 1414 - 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    David Hui MD, MSc

  2. Department of General Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    David Hui MD, MSc

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Correspondence to David Hui MD, MSc.

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David Hui has received research funding from Insys and Teva. He is also supported in part by grants from the National Cancer Institute (1R01CA214960-01A1, 1R01CA225701-01A1), the National Institute of Nursing Research (1R21NR016736–01), and the American Cancer Society (MRSG-14-1418-01-CCE).

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Hui, D. Palliative Cancer Care in the Outpatient Setting: Which Model Works Best?. Curr. Treat. Options in Oncol. 20, 17 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11864-019-0615-8

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