Palliative Care in Improving Quality of Life in Patients With Newly Diagnosed Pancreatic Cancer

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

I. To pilot-test an interdisciplinary Palliative Care Planning Intervention (PCPI) in pancreatic cancer. Specifically, to describe patients' satisfaction with the timing, content, and delivery of the PCPI intervention.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:

I. To pilot-test all selected measures for the study, including measures for healthcare resource utilization, overall cost, and patient/family out of pocket expenses.

II. The long-term objective of this pilot study is to conduct a larger PCPI intervention study for pancreatic cancer patients and evaluate its impact on quality of life (QOL), symptom intensity, healthcare resource utilization, and healthcare costs.

OUTLINE:

Patients receive a handbook titled "Supporting You During Cancer Treatment" with educational material on QOL issues. Patients undergo 2 education sessions on handbook material in-person or by telephone, with session 1 focusing on physical and social well-being issues and session 2 focusing on psychological and spiritual well-being issues. At the beginning of each session, patients select 3 priority topics from a list, and content is tailored to patient needs.

After completion of study, patients are followed up at 1 and 2 months.

Inclusion criteria

• Pathologically confirmed, new diagnosis of borderline resectable, locally advanced resectable/unresectable, or metastatic pancreatic cancer
• Patients who are scheduled to receive treatments (neoadjuvant therapy, surgery, adjuvant therapy, or palliative chemotherapy) at City of Hope (COH)
• All subjects must have the ability to understand and the willingness to provide informed consent

Exclusion criteria

• Subjects, who in the opinion of the investigator, may not be able to comply with the safety monitoring requirements of the study