Stem Cell Transplant Patients Benefit from Inpatient Palliative Care

According to a new study, inpatient palliative care integrated with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) care is associated with improvements in depression and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at six months after transplantation. The results were first reported by study leads at the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting.

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston randomized 160 patients with hematologic malignancies who were admitted into palliative care for autologous or allogeneic HSCT.  At baseline and six months post-HSCT, the researchers assessed quality of life, mood, and PTSD symptoms using the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Bone Marrow Transplant (FACT-BMT), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and the PTSD checklist, respectively. Click here to learn more about the full study.