Early integration of palliative care does not reduce the use of healthcare resources by patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (MM) compared to patients who received standard care, according to an publication-only abstract published at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting.
Previous research had suggested that early palliative care integration curbed the use of health care resources, especially towards the end of life, in certain patient groups, although this had not been tested in MM patients until now.
The researchers, led by Renato Samala, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, had previously observed that palliative care involvement within eight weeks of diagnosis improved the functional well-being, pain experience, and overall quality of life of a small cohort of patients with newly diagnosed symptomatic MM (the case group).
In the new study, the researchers compared this same case group to patients who received standard care (control group) to determine the effect of early palliative care on healthcare utilization as measured by number of emergency room (ER) visits, number of unplanned hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, and number of hospital and ICU days.
Using propensity score-matching, control patients were identified by age, gender and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) score with a 1:2 ratio of case group (n=20) to control group (n=40). Data were collected within a year from time of diagnosis.
The case group had a median (interquartile range) of 0 (0-0.5) ER visits, 1.5 (0-11.5) unplanned hospital days and 0 (0-0.5) ICU days, while control group had 0 (0-1), 0 (0-10) and 0 (0-0), respectively. There were no significant differences in ER visits, unplanned hospital admissions, ICU admissions, hospital days and ICU days between groups.
“Early palliative care integration did not appear to differ from standard care on healthcare utilization in this small cohort of patients with MM,” the authors concluded. “Future studies should focus on patients further along the trajectory, namely those with relapsed or progressive symptomatic MM.”
Reference
Samala R. Effect of early palliative care integration on healthcare utilization in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma. Abstract #e24042. Chicago; May 30-June 2, 2025.
