Charles D. Blanke, MD, on Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act
2016 Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium
Charles D. Blanke, MD, of the Oregon Health & Science University and Southwest Oncology Group, discusses the nearly 20 years’ experience with Oregon’s Death With Dignity (DWD) Act, a voter initiative that led to the first such law enacted in the United States (Abstract 44).
Tracy A. Balboni, MD, MPH, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, talks about how to preserve quality of life in the presence of complex spinal lesions, including novel ways to assess spinal instability and treat metastases.
Joseph A. Greer, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses the development of a mobile application to address treatment adherence and symptoms (Abstract 104).
Jennifer S. Temel, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses increasing prognostic uncertainty in light of targeted treatments and immunotherapies, and the difficulty predicting who will benefit.
Areej El-Jawahri, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses ways in which palliative care can reduce symptoms, improve quality of life, reduce depression and anxiety, and potentially optimize end-of-life care for patients with hematologic malignancies.
Eileen Danaher Hacker, PhD, APN, AOCN, of the University of Illinois at Chicago, discusses study findings that show improvement in physical activity, fatigue, muscle strength, and functional ability (Abstract 190).