Incorporating palliative care principles to improve patient care and quality of life in urologic oncology

Abstract

Palliative care — specialized healthcare focused on improving quality of life for patients with serious illnesses — can help urologists to care for patients with unmet symptom, coping and communication needs. Society guidelines from the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network recommend incorporating palliative care into standard oncological care, based on multiple randomized trials demonstrating that it significantly improves physical well-being, patient satisfaction and goal concordant care. Misconceptions regarding the objective and ideal timing of palliative care are common; a key concept is that palliative care and treatments seeking to cure or prolong life are not mutually exclusive. Urologists are well positioned to champion the integration of palliative care into surgical urologic oncology and should be aware of palliative care guidelines, indications for palliative care use and how the field of urologic oncology can adopt best practices. Society guidelines recommend incorporating palliative care into standard oncological care. However, misconceptions regarding palliative care are common — notably, palliative care and treatments seeking to cure or prolong life are not mutually exclusive. In this article, the authors discuss the integration of palliative care into surgical urologic oncology and consider palliative care guidelines, indications for palliative care use, and how the field of urologic oncology can adopt best practices.