Current Opinion in Supportive and Palliative Care

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Tapentadol is the first of a new class of analgesics, having synergistic µ-opioid receptor agonist and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitory actions. It has been widely researched in many areas of pain, often in noninferiority studies against potent opioids. This review describes all randomized and recent nonrandomized studies of tapentadol in adults with cancer pain. RECENT FINDINGS: Tapentadol has been shown to be at least as effective as morphine and oxycodone in five randomized (two of which were multicenter and double-blind) and a range of nonrandomized trials, although caution is needed when interpreting these results...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The misuse of opioids has increased significantly in recent decades. Historically, cancer patients have not been considered at risk of opioid misuse. However, cancer pain is common, and opioids are often prescribed. Guidelines addressing opioid misuse often exclude cancer patients. Given that misuse is associated with significant harm and a reduction in quality of life, it is important to understand the risk of opioid misuse in cancer patients and how we can recognise and treat it...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review summarizes recent research on the impact of ageism in older adults with cancer and how society can best address the issue. Despite older individuals representing the vast majority of those with cancer, with a dramatic increase in incidence anticipated in the coming decades, ageism remains an under-recognized and extremely detrimental phenomenon in cancer care. RECENT FINDINGS: We examine the associations between ageism and health, and highlight the consequences of higher mortality, a deterioration in mental and physical health, worse functional status and increased comorbidity burden...

PURPOSE OF THE REVIEW: Sexual and gender diverse (SGD) cancer patients possess unique identities and needs that must be considered during their cancer care. This narrative review explores the current literature on sexual and gender diversity in cancer care and survivorship, in addition to providing recommendations encouraged by the current literature. RECENT FINDINGS: We performed a literature search for articles published in English between January 2021 and June 2022 in Medline ALL and Embase...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Burnout is a complex phenomenon where several personal and work-related factors interact with each other. Palliative care is a challenging branch of healthcare, which can be especially demanding for the professionals providing it. This review presents an overview of the most recent literature on causes, identification, and consequences of burnout as well as articles on interventions to reduce burnout in the professional palliative healthcare provider setting. RECENT FINDINGS: With a few exceptions, research on burnout in the palliative care provider setting is focused on further insight on the different aspects that cause burnout on an individual, social, and organizational level...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The authors aimed to highlight trends in, and evidence underlying the use of highly conformal radiotherapy (RT) techniques in conventional nonstereotactic palliative RT. The authors reviewed palliative-intent and curative-intent studies relevant to the use of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for the delivery of nonstereotactic conventional regimens to the brain, head and neck, thorax, abdomen and pelvis, and bone metastases. RECENT FINDINGS: The use of IMRT has become standard with certain indications for brain metastases such as hippocampus-avoiding/limiting whole brain RT...

PURPOSE OF THE REVIEW: The aim of this review is to describe the clinical use and tolerability of immune checkpoint inhibitors in older adults with solid tumors, where there is an abundance of evidence with recent updates including subgroups of older patients. RECENT FINDINGS: Studies with updated analyses and subgroups of older patients show that in general older patients benefit as well as younger patients and tolerate immunotherapy very well. However, in some instances of combination therapies which may expose patients to more toxicity, the benefits are reduced, and careful selection of older patients, including adjunctive assessments such as geriatric assessment, can help to identify the appropriate treatment for an individual patient...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review summarized current research evidence examining care needs of older patients with advanced cancer in dealing with disease, treatment, and treatment-related side effects. It also identified gaps and directions for future research and practice. RECENT FINDINGS: Older patients with advanced cancer need support from health professionals, family, friends, and other social network members in the management of physical symptoms and functioning, psychosocial and spiritual care, information provision, and practical resolution of daily problems...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Present an approach for surgical decision-making in cancer that incorporates geriatric assessment by building upon the common categories of tumor, technical, and patient factors to enable dual assessment of disease and geriatric factors. RECENT FINDINGS: Conventional preoperative assessment is insufficient for older adults missing important modifiable deficits, and inaccurately estimating treatment intolerance, complications, functional impairment and disability, and death...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Older adults with cancer frequently experience malnutrition and sarcopenia resulting in lower treatment efficacy, increased risk of toxicities and healthcare costs, lower quality of life and shorter survival. Improving nutritional status in this rapidly growing population is an urgent need globally. We reviewed randomized controlled trials from the last 18 months focusing on nutritional status and applying multimodal interventions in older adults with cancer...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Proper medication management is an essential part of older adult cancer care. An aging population, an increase in anticancer treatment options, and high rates of comorbid conditions make navigating general medication reconciliation complicated. This review will highlight the recent literature describing the roles of the oncology pharmacist in caring for older adults with cancer. RECENT FINDINGS: The body of literature highlighting oncology pharmacist roles in this population is mainly focused on polypharmacy and potentially inappropriate medication assessments, deprescribing nonessential therapies, drug-drug interaction reviews, and immunization optimization...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Current Opinion in Supportive and Palliative Care was launched in 2007. It is one of a successful series of review journals whose unique format is designed to provide a systematic and critical assessment of the literature as presented in the many primary journals. The fields of supportive and palliative care are divided into 12 sections that are reviewed once a year. Each section is assigned a Section Editor, a leading authority in the area, who identifies the most important topics at that time. Here we are pleased to introduce the Journal's Section Editors for this issue...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of this review is to highlight the demand for fertility preservation among cancer survivors and to draw attention to areas where healthcare workers need to improve. As technology advances, maximizing cryopreservation rates will be paramount to increase the ability individuals to conceive after cancer treatment. RECENT FINDINGS: Guidelines recommending discussion of fertility for those diagnosed with cancer have been shown to increase patient satisfaction and overall quality of life...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Systemic chemotherapy and second-generation androgen receptor-axis targeted therapies have been in the forefront of management for metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients with low or high symptom burden. However, in the recent past, due to improvement in molecular characterization, management of mCRPC has witnessed long strides of advancement. We aim to review the novel nonhormonal and nonchemotherapeutic treatment options. RECENT FINDINGS: Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors (PARPis) such as olaparib and rucaparib have been recently approved by the US FDA for use in mCRPC with germline or somatic mutations in homologous recombination repair...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) is widely employed for treatment of advanced prostate cancer and it is considered the frontline therapy. However, the numerous adverse reactions associated with this treatment option are concerning and its potential association with cardiovascular diseases (CVD) should not be overlooked. In this review, we examine the literature on the cardiovascular side effects of ADT and the physiologic mechanisms underpinning the association with CVD...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To describe the burden of post-COVID respiratory sequelae in posthospital and nonhospitalized COVID-19 survivors and to describe the priorities of clinical management. RECENT FINDINGS: Due to varying definitions of 'Long COVID' or 'Post-COVID', the prevalence of post-COVID sequelae or persisting symptoms is challenging to estimate but ranges from 2.3 to 51%. Risk factors for persistent post-COVID symptoms include age, female sex, deprivation, presence of comorbidities; and in posthospital COVID-19 survivors, the severity of acute infection...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: During decades, adjuvant radiotherapy (ART) has been the standard of care after surgery, based on four randomized clinical trials (RCTs). As early salvage radiotherapy (SRT) recently challenged the ART paradigm, the optimal timing to initiate radiotherapy remains a matter of debate. RECENT FINDINGS: Three RCTs evaluated ART or SRT for postprostatectomy patients, with pathological risk factors (Gleason score > 8, pT3, positive margins). The ARTISTIC meta-analysis demonstrated similar 5-year biochemical recurrence-free survival for ART and SRT (89 vs...