Precision Palliative Care as a Pragmatic Solution for a Care Delivery Problem
ASCO and National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines recommend all patients with advanced cancer receive early palliative care (PC), within 8 weeks of diagnosis. Unfortunately, guidelines ignore the reality that demand for PC outweighs the supply of specialists, and the evidence that not all patients have supportive care needs at the time of diagnosis. This study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology proposes adoption of precision PC, a pragmatic approach that captures heterogeneous, time-varying, and complex patient/caregiver needs, while considering limited human and system resources.