Trial reportJournal of the National Cancer Institute2021
Effect of Early Palliative Care on Quality of Life of Advanced Head and Neck Cancer Patients: A Phase III Trial.
Trial report in Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Early Integrated Palliative Care in Patients With Advanced Cancer: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2024Trial
- Impact of hospice care plus estazolam on sleep and psychological distress in advanced gastrointestinal cancer: a real-world observational study.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Early palliative care for patients with oral cancer in Sri Lanka: A non-randomized controlled trial.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Palliative Care With Tracheostomy or Gastrostomy Tube Use and End-of-Life Quality and Costs Among Patients With Head and Neck Cancer.JAMA otolaryngology-- head & neck surgery · 2025Article
- Timing Matters: A Systematic Review of Early Versus Delayed Palliative Care in Advanced Cancer.Cancers · 2025Review
- Defining "early palliative care" for adults diagnosed with a life-limiting illness: a scoping review.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
- Psycho-oncology/Supportive Care in Head-Neck Cancers Patients Undergoing Radiation Therapy: A Randomized Controlled Trial.South Asian journal of cancer · 2025Article
- Effectiveness of early palliative care in patients with head and neck cancer in Taiwan.Journal of the Chinese Medical Association : JCMA · 2024Article
- Palliative and end-of-life care initiatives for people dying from cancer in India: a narrative review.Ecancermedicalscience · 2024Review
- Recent developments in gene therapy research in India.Journal of biosciences · 2024Review
- What is an "early palliative care" intervention? A scoping review of controlled studies in oncology.Cancer medicine · 2023Article
- Palliative care interventions for patients with head and neck cancer: protocol for a scoping review.BMJ open · 2023Article
- Integrating Palliative Care into Oncology Care Worldwide: The Right Care in the Right Place at the Right Time.Current treatment options in oncology · 2023Review
- Anaplastic Cancer: Our Experience.Indian journal of surgical oncology · 2022Article
- Impact of Early Palliative Care to Improve Quality of Life of Advanced Cancer Patients: A Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials.Indian journal of palliative careReview
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEarly palliative care (EPC) is an important aspect of cancer management but, to our knowledge, has never been evaluated in patients with head and neck cancer. Hence, we performed this study to determine whether the addition of EPC to standard therapy leads to an improvement in the quality of life (QOL), decrease in symptom burden, and improvement in overall survival.
methodsAdult patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck region planned for palliative systemic therapy were allocated 1:1 to either standard systemic therapy without or with comprehensive EPC service referral. Patients were administered the revised Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy for head and neck cancer (FACT-H&N) questionnaire at baseline and every 1 month thereafter for 3 months. The primary endpoint was a change in the QOL measured at 3 months after random assignment. All statistical tests were 2-sided.
resultsNinety patients were randomly assigned to each arm. There was no statistical difference in the change in the FACT-H&N total score (P = .94), FACT-H&N Trial Outcome Index (P = .95), FACT-general total (P = .84), and Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale scores at 3 months between the 2 arms. The median overall survival was similar between the 2 arms (hazard ratio for death = 1.01, 95% confidence interval = 0.74 to 1.35). There were 5 in-hospital deaths in both arms (5.6% for both, P = .99).
conclusionsIn this phase III study, the integration of EPC in head and neck cancer patients did not lead to an improvement in the QOL or survival.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.