Working with a palliative care team

The interdisciplinary team is fundamental to the successful delivery of quality palliative care. Ideally, the oncologist is an integral part of either the palliative care or hospice team and serves to maintain continuity of care through the end of life. In the United States, barriers can complicate the oncologist's easy integration into the hospice team as patients often remain at home. Also, there may be philosophical or clinical practice differences between oncology and palliative care at first glance. This article focuses on ways to overcome these potential obstacles and use differences in training to strengthen the team's impact. A significant part of oncology practice includes managing difficult symptoms, mitigating suffering, and discussing priorities of care--all elements of palliative medicine that oncologists perform daily. Participating on a palliative care team may be natural for oncologists, and some might elect to provide integrated palliative cancer care for patients throughout the course of their disease and at the end of life. Thus, there is a need to enrich the general oncologist's knowledge of specialized palliative medicine, as recommended by the major cancer organizations, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the European Society of Medical Oncology.It is important to know when to incorporate a palliative or hospice care team into the routine management of a cancer patient and what benefits these referrals can provide. Oncologists have an obligation to provide high-quality palliative care to all patients in an integrated fashion, including patients with advanced cancer enrolled in clinical trials for early therapeutics.