Phase II Feasibility Study of Early Palliative Care for Patients With Multiple Myeloma and Aggressive Lymphoma
Patients with multiple myeloma experience a wide range of physical and psychological symptoms from the time of their diagnosis. Meanwhile, patients with aggressive lymphomas undergo unpredictable illness courses, resulting in goals of care conversations occurring late in the illness trajectory and aggressive care being received in the last 30 days of life. Early palliative care alongside usual cancer care has been shown to improve patient outcomes such as symptom burden, mood, and quality of life in patients with solid tumours (e.g. lung, breast or gynecological cancers), but has not been explored among patients with blood cancers to date. The goal of this clinical trial is to a brief early palliative care intervention for patients with multiple myeloma and aggressive B cell lymphoma attending the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. The main goals of the study are: * To see if it is possible to apply the early palliative care intervention for patients with multiple myeloma and aggressive lymphoma * To see if this early palliative care intervention works well for these patients * To compare patient experiences with early palliative care and usual care. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups: one group will receive early palliative care in addition to usual care from their blood cancer doctor, and the other group will receive usual care from their blood cancer doctor only. All participants will be asked to fill out questionnaires about their symptom burden, mood, quality of life, and satisfaction with care throughout the study. Some participants will also be asked to take part in interviews at the end of the trial to answer questions about their experience taking part in the study. Researchers will compare the results between the two groups to see if there are any improvements in quality of life for the patients who received early palliative care. The researchers will use the results of this study to guide in the development of a larger clinical trial.
• age ≥18 years;
• a new diagnosis of multiple myeloma or at time of progression of disease necessitating a change in treatment plan, or relapsed/refractory aggressive B cell lymphomas after one prior line of therapy;
• Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status 0-3; and
• willingness to complete symptom screening.