• haematological disease
• supportive care
• palliative care
• early integration

The integration of palliative care in oncology has advanced rapidly in just a few short years. It is only within the past decade that the landscape of early integrated palliative care even reached a point where multiple clinical trials exist, showing significant improvements in outcomes including quality of life, symptoms and even caregiver well-being. Ensuing policy statements now call for the inclusion of palliative care as a standard component of high-quality, comprehensive cancer care.1 2 However, palliative care use among patients with haematological malignancies remains far less frequent, and is generally underdeveloped as a practice at most centres.

This is certainly not due to a lack of need. Patients with haematological malignancies experience high symptom burden, frequent psychological comorbidities and poor end-of-life quality outcomes.3–5 Indeed, many of us have called attention to these significant issues to date, and advocating for early prognosis-independent integration of palliative care into haematology.6 7

Within this landscape, one might question the need for another study on the palliative care needs of those with haematological malignancies, or the associated poor end-of-life care outcomes. However, the study by Beaussant et al in this month’s issue illustrates a greater level of sophistications that is needed in the literature in this area.8 Haematological malignancies is a catchall term used to describe a remarkably heterogeneous group of diseases, characterised by striking differences in treatment intensities and outcomes. They range from acute to chronic conditions, and portend a variety of responses to disease-directed treatments, sometimes even including the possibility of cure, which is quite unlike most advanced solid tumours. This results in …