Supportive, Palliative, and Hospice Care
摘要
Caring for patients with lung cancer requires a deep understanding of the person, including their values and goals of therapy; therefore, we borrow from Stephen R. Covey when we “begin with the end in mind” (Covey, The seven habits of highly effective people. Franklin Covey, 1989). Many people diagnosed with lung cancer have complex and evolving medical and social histories. This history compounds the experience of symptoms related to a cancer diagnosis and treatment and the ensuing emotional toll. Thus, optimal supportive care for people with lung cancer requires continuous and comprehensive evaluation to ensure their care is consistent with their goals and appropriate supportive care is in place to minimize suffering. Integrating multidisciplinary supportive care services into patient care helps the medical team best respond to the patients’ medical, social, spiritual, emotional, and financial needs. Primary palliative care, as a structured, holistic assessment performed by the oncology care team, is essential for all lung cancer patients. Introducing advanced care planning, goals for treatment, and end-of-life goals is important early in a patient’s treatment course. Ideally, the team will revisit these topics routinely when the patient’s health status changes and when the cancer progresses. Specialty palliative care offers patients and families deeper focus on symptom management and advanced care planning. The timely introduction of hospice services helps patients meet their goals for the end of life, and often is the most effective way to extend life and ease suffering in the setting of advanced disease, or when treatment toxicities are no longer tolerable or acceptable. This chapter provides a structured, comprehensive approach for patient assessment and care plan development to support lung cancer patients proactively from diagnosis, along the care continuum, and ultimately to hospice care.