Results from a structured interprofessional palliative care rehabilitation program in oncology.
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e20598 Background: Post-treatment patients with active cancer face considerable burden from the effects of both disease and treatment. The Palliative Rehabilitation Program was designed to ease those challenges and to improve the patient’s functioning. The current study evaluated the changes in function scores of patients with advanced cancer upon completion of the structured program and examined the medical predictors of program completion. Methods: Referrals for 173 patients who were finished anticancer therapy were received. One hundred and thirty six patients were eligible and enrolled in the eight-week interprofessional palliative rehabilitation program. Of those, 84 completed the program. Measures of physical, nutritional, social and psychological functioning were evaluated at entry and completion of the program. Results: Significant improvements were experienced in physical performance (P =0.000), nutrition (P =0.000), symptom severity (P=0.005 to P= 0.000), symptom interference in functioning (P =0.001 to P=0.000), and fatigue (P=0.001 to P=0.000). Reasons for not completing the program were: disease progression, geographical inaccessibility, being too well, dying, and personal/unknown reasons. A normal CRP level (<10mg/L; P=0.013) was a predictor of program completion. Conclusions: Patients living with advanced heterogeneous cancers who underwent an interprofessional palliative rehabilitation program experienced significant improvement in their functioning in many domains. Program completion can be predicted by normal CRP level.
