Giving Compass' Take:

• Leslie Orr reports that researchers have exposed gaps in cancer care by talking to families about their experiences. 

• How can funders help to close these gaps for families most in need of extra help and support? 

• Learn how kindness can make a difference in cancer care. 

Families of cancer patients describe three distinct experiences in the final weeks of their loved ones’ lives.

Researchers gathered the perspectives, identified the problems, and say they will use what they learned to improve care at this difficult and emotionally charged time.

For the study, which appears in Supportive Care in Cancer, investigators recorded and analyzed stories from 92 families and caregivers, looking for common threads about their loved one’s final transition from active treatment to death.

“The third group was the smallest group, but the most tragic,” Norton says. “They felt they had no information, did not know their family member was dying, and described frantically trying to get help at the end.”

Most problems arose when families didn’t understand how the cancer was likely to progress, when deliberations with doctors and nurses were ineffective, and when medical decisions didn’t reflect a shared understanding between the family and the treatment team.

Although some families understood the limitations of available therapies, they didn’t know how to anticipate, identify, or respond to their loved ones’ rapid decline. And in some cases, caregivers felt totally unprepared and confused about what was occurring, leading to more intensive treatments and resuscitation efforts than patients had wanted and a breakdown of trust with the medical team, according to the study.

Read the full article about exposing gaps in cancer care by Leslie Orr at Futurity.