A palliative medicine consultation can be most effective with symptom management and improving quality of life when compared with anesthesia-pain medicine, according to a pilot study. In an assessment of symptom management, investigators found the both methods are effective in improving cancer pain. Patients in the palliative-medicine group showed clinically significant improvement in 8 of 19 symptoms compared with 3 of 19 in the anesthesia-pain medicine group. In addition, the palliative-medicine group showed improvement in 3 of 5 quality-of-life parameters compared with 1 of 5 in the anesthesia-pain medicine group.
The complete study is available in the May-June issue of The Journal of Supportive Oncology (http://www.supportiveoncology.net/journal/abstracts/0903113.html).
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