Jenny O’Brien* and Hope Uronis
Patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer have a high mortality rate with 5-year survival of 2.9%. Pancreatic cancer can cause a high symptom burden related to their disease. ASCO and NCCN recommend patients with metastatic disease be referred to palliative care at the time of diagnosis. Palliative care has consistently been shown to benefit patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer, but a large gap between the proportion of patients referred and those would benefit continues to exist. Here, we review the current literature on the benefits of palliative care in metastatic pancreatic cancer, the need for improvement in the current healthcare healthlandscape, and some obstacles to be overcome in order to maximize the number of patients receiving this highly efficacious care model.
Published Date: 2025-04-30; Received Date: 2025-04-08
