Palliative Care Intervention for Patients With End-Stage Liver Disease: A Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial

Palliative care improves quality of life (QoL) in advanced illnesses, but data in end-stage liver disease (ESLD) are limited. It is unknown whether palliative care delivered by hepatologists is effective when compared with palliative care specialists.

To compare the effectiveness of palliative care delivered by trained hepatologists with the care delivered by conventional palliative care specialists in improving QoL at 3 months.

This comparative effectiveness cluster randomized trial for US patients treated for ESLD in 19 US medical centers compared a palliative care intervention delivered by palliative care-trained hepatologists (hepatologist group; 11 centers) with palliative care specialists (consultative group; 8 centers). Eligible patients were US adults with either decompensated cirrhosis or hepatocellular cancer who had a life expectancy of at least 6 months, had not received or scheduled liver transplantation, or had not received palliative care in the prior 3 months. Hepatologists in hepatologist group alone received primary palliative care training. Data collection occurred from January 2019 through June 2025; analysis was conducted from July to September 2025.

Participants received 4 palliative care visits over 3 months delivered by either palliative care-trained hepatologists or palliative care specialists, using a structured palliative care checklist.

Superiority or a priori noninferiority of the effect of palliative care delivered by hepatologists vs palliative care specialists on change in QoL at 3 months, measured by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Hepatobiliary (FACT-Hep) total score (higher scores indicating better QoL). Secondary outcomes included change in symptom burden, distress, depression, satisfaction from baseline to 3 months, and mortality.

A total of 935 patients were enrolled (mean [SD] age, 63.0 [10.3] years; 275 female [29%]; 130 Hispanic ethnicity [14%]; 144 Black [15%], 736 White [79%]). From baseline to 3 months, QoL improved in both groups (adjusted mean: hepatologist, 8.01 [95% CI, 5.38 to 10.65]; consultative, 7.02 [95% CI, 4.34 to 9.71]; both P < .001). Although superiority was not found in change in QoL, prespecified noninferiority analysis showed that the improvement in the hepatologist group was noninferior to the consultative group (adjusted mean difference, 0.98 [95% CI, -2.86 to 4.83]; P = .01). Symptom burden (adjusted mean difference, -7.52 [95% CI, -9.89 to -5.15] vs -5.31 [95% CI, -7.60 to -3.03]) and depression (adjusted mean difference, -1.18 [95% CI, -1.78 to -0.57] vs -0.90 [95% CI, -1.49 to -0.31]) improved in both groups, without significant between-group differences. Patient satisfaction improved more in the hepatologist group compared with the palliative care group (adjusted mean difference, 3.37 [95% CI, 2.24 to 4.49] vs 0.91 [95% CI, -0.15 to 1.96]; P = .002). Mortality at 3 months was similar in both groups.

This cluster trial found that palliative care delivered by trained hepatologists was comparable with palliative care delivered by palliative care specialists in improving QoL in patients with ESLD and was associated with greater improvement in patient satisfaction, demonstrating the effectiveness among enrolled patients.

ClinicalTrials.Gov Identifier: NCT03540771.