Palliative Care

Palliative care is a team-based medical specialty that helps patients who have a serious illness in the relief of their pain, symptoms, suffering and stress. The goal is to prevent and ease suffering and to offer patients and their families the best possible quality of life. It is useful at any stage of an illness and for patients of any age. Palliative care can be provided at the same time as curative treatments.

For questions or a referral for a palliative care consultation, speak to your doctor, and call 718-661-7318, Monday through Friday, during business hours.

Palliative Care Information Act

Effective February 9, 2011, New York State passed a law called the Palliative Care Information Act, which requires physicians
and nurse practitioners to offer terminally-ill patients information and counseling concerning palliative care and end-of-life care
options. The law is intended to ensure that patients and their families are fully informed of the options available to them when
they are faced with a terminal illness or condition, so they are empowered to make choices consistent with their goals of care,
wishes and beliefs and to optimize their quality of life. Even though this law focuses on patients with terminal illness, palliative
care is actually much broader and can be accessed by patients with any serious illness, regardless of their prognosis.

The Role of Palliative Care in the Treatment of Cancer 

In September 2010, the New England Journal of Medicine published an important study entitled Early Palliative Care for Patients with Metastatic Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer. The study enrolled 151 patients and randomized the patients to one of two subsets: 1) standard oncologic care, or 2) standard oncologic care + early palliative care. The study found that among patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, early palliative care led to significant improvements in symptoms, quality of life and mood. As compared with patients receiving standard care, patients receiving early palliative care had less aggressive care at the end of life but longer survival (about two months longer). 

In September 2011, the Commission on Cancer (CoC) released a new manual of program standards, Cancer Program Standards 2012: Ensuring Patient-Centered Care. This includes a new standard for palliative care (Standard 2.5). As the premier source for setting accreditation standards for cancer centers, the explicit inclusion of a robust palliative care standard represents an important step towards the recognition that all cancer patients and families have equal access to palliative care throughout the continuum of the cancer experience.

The Palliative Care Program at NYHQ works closely with our Cancer Center and its specialty physicians and staff to provide
high quality palliative care to patients living with cancer and their families.