Early palliative care for improving quality of life and survival time in adults with advanced cancer: Meta-analytical findings from a Cochrane Review.

10132Background: Incurable cancer often constitutes an enormous challenge to patients, affecting their physical and psychosocial well-being profoundly. Targeted types of treatment (early palliative care) have been developed in recent years to support people in this stage. This review summarises what is currently known about the effects of these treatments regarding improving health-related quality of life, depression, symptom intensity and survival in adults diagnosed with advanced cancer compared with treatment as usual/standard cancer care. Methods: We searched Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE , EMBASE , CINAHL, PsycINFO and Opengrey together with three clinical trial registers and reference lists of articles. Additionally, we contacted authors of completed and on-going studies. All randomised and cluster-randomised controlled trials (RCTs) on professional palliative care services that provided palliative specialist or co-ordinated comprehensive care for patients in early advanced...