Helping patients near the end of life be comfortable, physically and emotionally is the focus of a new publication on palliative care from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Geriatrician Dr. Catherine Eberle at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha says there comes a time when fighting advanced cancer should give way to treatment that focuses on comfort. It’s understood to mean that time in life when one is getting closer to death and treating the symptoms is more important than trying to treat the illness any more — really, the study of how to cope with an illness that cannot be cured. She says it’s related to hospice programs, but doesn’t have some of the restrictions hospice care has, with the main goal to let you live life fully for as long as you have left. There are actually several booklets, one aimed at doctors, another for friends and family to help them understand what a terminal patient’s going through and how to ease their pain and help them enjoy the final stage of their life. Eberle says last-ditch treatments for serious illness often have side effects that can make a patient very sick, and at some point it’s time to decide when to stop. Eberle says “We physicians want to fix things,” and try everything they can to save a patient, but they sometimes forget about the side effects. Palliative care aims to offer pain and symptom control, give patients hope and comfort, relieve burdens, and strengthen patient and family relationships. There’s also information on advance directives, the so-called “living will” that lets a loved one tell doctors your preference on things like continuing life support or reviving a patient whose heart has stopped. To order the new treatment guidelines, call 1-888-909-nccn or go to the American Cancer Society website at www.cancer.org
