MGH researchers Find palliative care improves Survival for Lung Cancer Patients, can get Mesothelioma patients

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine to "integrate palliative care at the beginning of the treatment of patients with advanced lung cancer not only improve their mood and quality of life, the extended their lives".  Dr. Jennifer Temel, lead author of the study, believes that similar studies in patients with other types of advanced cancer, such as mesothelioma, will help doctors to better understand the importance of palliative care.

Pleura mesothelioma is a rare, aggressive form of lung cancer is almost always caused by exposure and usually located in the outer lining of the lungs is known as the mesothelium.  Mesothelioma symptoms may not appear until up to 50 years after the first exposure to asbestos.But when manifested itself, mesothelioma quickly progress can cause life-threatening complications. Reading is now often palliative, and aims to relieve symptoms and improve the patient's quality of life. 

  Traditional treatments of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy is often used in concert for multimodal therapy in the majority of mesothelioma treatment plans.Radiation is often the last treatment used in the care of the patient and are often used for palliative care, palliative care treatment for end-stage cancer patients, is intended to control pain, stop the bleeding and reduce pressures, despite the fact that cancer can no longer be controlled. The expectation is that the patient will maintain a good quality of life at the end.

MGH use the palliative care team consisting of doctors, nurses, chaplains, social workers and trained to help patients and their families faced with terminal illness to cope with the psychological and spiritual aspects of his illness, and to manage the symptoms.Study the authors believe that increased survival was due to their patients better mood and quality of life, and the management of symptoms and complications and appropriate end-of-life care.

MGH Center for Thoracic cancers gives "individualized, compassionate care and the most advanced treatments for patients with breast cancer," including the esophageal cancer, lung cancer, mesothelioma, thymoma. MGH researchers and doctors are known to lead the way in the treatment of lung cancer and mesothelioma. Diagnostic Electron Microscopy (EM) unit at MGH developed a new process using electron microscopy as shown promise with mesothelioma diagnosis.

Palliative care improves quality of life