Project Funding Details

Our project uses a patient navigator to deliver a culturally tailored intervention to improve palliative care for Latinos with advanced cancer in urban and rural communities. This project is groundbreaking, innovative, and addresses several American Cancer Society priority focus areas. First, the proposed research aims to improve palliative care with the goal of preventing and relieving suffering for people facing serious, complex illness. Palliative care, according to the National Quality Forum and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, provides patient and family-centered care offered in conjunction with curative and all other appropriate forms of medical treatment. It addresses physical, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual needs, and facilitates patients'' understanding of illness and choice. There is emerging evidence that palliative care may also improve survival for cancer patients. The proposed research also focuses on reducing health disparities. Studies have shown that Latinos are more likely to die in a hospital, less likely to use hospice services, and more likely to have unmanaged pain. Our study will recruit 240 Latino patients with advanced cancer from an urban safety net hospital, a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, and several rural communities (including some of the poorest, most underserved counties in Colorado). Patients will be randomized (similar to a coin flip) to either a control or intervention group. The control group will receive written materials covering three important palliative care domains -advance care planning, pain management, and hospice care. The materials, in English and Spanish, are appropriate for patients with low health literacy. Patients in the intervention group will receive the same written materials but will also have a patient navigator who will make 5 home visits to review materials, help patients and families talk about goals/values, and complete an advance directives, all in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner. The navigator may also help with: accessing community resources, participating in family meetings with health care providers, and offering support to patients and families. We hypothesize that our intervention will increase advance care planning, improve pain management, increase hospice referrals, and fewer patients will have improved palliative care overall at the end of life. ACS is committed to the patient navigator model to improve cancer screening, early diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship. Once we demonstrate the efficacy of a patient navigator intervention to improve palliative care for advanced cancer patients, we can disseminate the training and intervention to all patient navigators working with Latino cancer patients. Our long term goals then address the ACS mission of reducing cancer-related disparities, improving palliative care for cancer patients, and improving access to quality care in rural communities.

Our project uses a patient navigator to deliver a culturally tailored intervention to improve palliative care for Latinos with advanced cancer in urban and rural communities. This project is groundbreaking, innovative, and addresses several American Cancer Society priority focus areas. First, the proposed research aims to improve palliative care with the goal of preventing and relieving suffering for people facing serious, complex illness. Palliative care, according to the National Quality Forum and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, provides patient and family-centered care offered in conjunction with curative and all other appropriate forms of medical treatment. It addresses physical, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual needs, and facilitates patients'' understanding of illness and choice. There is emerging evidence that palliative care may also improve survival for cancer patients. The proposed research also focuses on reducing health disparities. Studies have shown that Latinos are more likely to die in a hospital, less likely to use hospice services, and more likely to have unmanaged pain. Our study will recruit 240 Latino patients with advanced cancer from an urban safety net hospital, a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, and several rural communities (including some of the poorest, most underserved counties in Colorado). Patients will be randomized (similar to a coin flip) to either a control or intervention group. The control group will receive written materials covering three important palliative care domains -advance care planning, pain management, and hospice care. The materials, in English and Spanish, are appropriate for patients with low health literacy. Patients in the intervention group will receive the same written materials but will also have a patient navigator who will make 5 home visits to review materials, help patients and families talk about goals/values, and complete an advance directives, all in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner. The navigator may also help with: accessing community resources, participating in family meetings with health care providers, and offering support to patients and families. We hypothesize that our intervention will increase advance care planning, improve pain management, increase hospice referrals, and fewer patients will have improved palliative care overall at the end of life. ACS is committed to the patient navigator model to improve cancer screening, early diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship. Once we demonstrate the efficacy of a patient navigator intervention to improve palliative care for advanced cancer patients, we can disseminate the training and intervention to all patient navigators working with Latino cancer patients. Our long term goals then address the ACS mission of reducing cancer-related disparities, improving palliative care for cancer patients, and improving access to quality care in rural communities.