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.
Eduardo Bruera, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the need for outpatient palliative care programs to monitor and support these complex patients and their family members.
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).
Charles F. von Gunten, MD, PhD, of OhioHealth, discusses hospice care as a measure of quality, and findings that show medical oncologists doubled the median length of hospice service from 20 days to 40 days (Abstract 45).
Eric Roeland, MD, of the University of California, San Diego, discusses the key papers presented at this year’s Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium.