{
  "abstract": "Both surgery and palliative care have strong roots in oncology. Even though cancer operations were largely palliative in nature for generations before cures became achievable, the role of palliative care in oncologic surgical practice has not been well defined. That gap in understanding and care delivery has recently begun to be addressed in the literature. Specifically, the role of specialty palliative care in surgical oncology has recently been brought into focus with two randomized controlled trials of perioperative palliative care conducted in the United States. Despite methodologically mirroring the groundbreaking 2010 work of Temel et al, which demonstrated the benefits of early palliative care in a medical oncology setting, 1 both surgical trials published in 2023 failed to replicate those positive findings.2 3 We will take a deep dive into the reasons why, explore the many questions generated by these so-called ‘negative’ results, and discuss implications for future directions and opportunities to integrate palliative care into surgical oncology care going forward. In particular, we will emphasize the importance of primary palliative care, along with quality measures and current best practices4 related to management strategies, patient selection, communication, and decision making in surgical oncology.References Temel JS, Greer JA, Muzikansky A, Gallagher ER, Admane S, Jackson VA, Dahlin CM, Blinderman CD, Jacobsen J, Pirl WF, Billings JA, Lynch TJ. Early palliative care for patients with metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer. N Engl J Med. 2010 Aug 19;363(8):733–42.Aslakson RA, Rickerson E, Fahy B, Waterman B, Siden R, Colborn K, Smith S, Verano M, Lira I, Hollahan C, Siddiqi A, Johnson K, Chandrashekaran S, Harris E, Nudotor R, Baker J, Heidari SN, Poultsides G, Conca-Cheng AM, Cook Chapman A, Lessios AS, Holdsworth LM, Gustin J, Ejaz A, Pawlik T, Miller J, Morris AM, Tulsky JA, Lorenz K, Temel JS, Smith TJ, Johnston F. Effect of perioperative palliative care on health-related quality of life among patients undergoing surgery for cancer: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2023 May 1;6(5):e2314660.Shinall MC Jr, Martin SF, Karlekar M, Hoskins A, Morgan E, Kiehl A, Bryant P, Orun OM, Raman R, Tillman BF, Hawkins AT, Brown AJ, Bailey CE, Idrees K, Chang SS, Smith JA Jr, Tan MCB, Magge D, Penson D, Ely EW. Effects of specialist palliative care for patients undergoing major abdominal surgery for cancer: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Surg. 2023 Jul 1;158(7):747–755.Lee KC, Walling AM, Senglaub SS, Bernacki R, Fleisher LA, Russell MM, Wenger NS, Cooper Z. Improving serious illness care for surgical patients: quality indicators for surgical palliative care. Ann Surg. 2022 Jan 1;275(1):196–202.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Columbia University Irving Medical Center, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Ana Berlin"
    }
  ],
  "title": "S2-4 Palliative care in surgical oncology: recent updates and where do we go from here?",
  "uid": "17cf9097-4a0c-5cd3-9517-4215c3a0236d"
}