This episode features Professor Sheila Payne (International Observatory on End of Life Care, Health Innovation One, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK).

What is already known about the topic?

• Advance care planning is considered good practice in palliative and end of life care and is promoted in health policy.
• There is no standardised approach to advance care planning in practice.
• There is recent debate about the utility and effectiveness of advance care planning in palliative care contexts.

What this paper adds

• Most patients did not recognise the concept of advance care planning and did not welcome conversations with health care providers about future planning despite many participants having done this prior to interview.
• Patients with treatable but not curable cancer live with uncertainty of prognosis in the context of ongoing and new treatment options, making advance care planning problematic.
• Most patients preferred to discuss future care, social and funeral arrangements within families, if at all.

Implications for practice, theory or policy

• The principles of future care planning can be introduced early in treatment without making them specifically about planning for the last days of life.
• Healthcare professionals in cancer and palliative care may need to ensure that future care planning discussions evolve over time, with decisions made being routinely revisited in light of changes in disease progression, treatment options and prognosis.
• Future policy guidance on advance care planning needs to take account of the changing treatment landscape for those with treatable but not curable cancer.

Full paper available from:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02692163251363752

If you would like to record a podcast about your published (or accepted) Palliative Medicine paper, please contact Dr Amara Nwosu:

[email protected]