A Palliative Radiation Oncology Consult Service Reduces Total Costs During Hospitalization

The Supportive and Palliative Radiation Oncology Service: A Dedicated Model for Palliative Radiation Oncology Care

R adiation therapy (RT) has been an established modality for treating various types of cancers since the early 1900s. It became more broadly utilized in cancer therapy beginning in the 1960s, with greater accessibility to radioactive sources such as cobalt-60 and the emergence of the linear accelerator. The linear accelerator is a piece of equipment that instead of requiring a radioactive sourc...

Implementation of an ad hoc hospital-based palliative care consult service.

Introduction Nearly 50% of Americans who die from chronic illness die in acute hospital settings, underscoring the critical need to better address the complex needs of terminally ill patients and their families in the acute care setting.1 A number of efforts have been undertaken to improve care for hospitalized terminally ill individuals.2–4 One approach is a palliative care consult service (PC...

Palliative oncology: thalidomide.

After decades of disuse because of its teratogenic effects, thalidomide has had a resurgence of use as a promising therapeutic agent for multiple myeloma. Its mechanism of action involves activation of the immune system, antiangiogenic effects, and inhibition of cytokines. Thalidomide does not interact with the cytochrome oxidase system. It is not significantly metabolized, but it does undergo ...

Oncology and Palliative Care.

Oncology developed as a discipline over the last decades. Treatment is concentrated on cure or palliation of the illness with the help of chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery. Palliative care has its origin in the hospice movement that started around 1960 in the UK. Centre of care is the patient and his family. Focus of care has moved from quantity to quality of life. Symptom control, communic...

Solar radiation during a total solar eclipse