Please select the eligibility criteria that correspond to the clinical trial below.
Title: Early Specialized Palliative Care Team Intervention for Patients With Metastatic Cancer: A Cluster Randomized Trial
Brief Summary: Patients with advanced cancer often have numerous physical and psychological symptoms, which can negatively affect their quality of life. A palliative care team of different health care professionals (including doctors, nurses, social workers and therapists) specializes in treating these symptoms and offers support for patients and their families. However, palliative care teams are currently involved only in the last two months of a patient's life or not at all.

The main purpose of this study is to determine whether, compared to conventional cancer care, early involvement by a specialized symptom control and palliative care team in patients with advanced cancer will be associated with: better quality of life, greater patient and caregiver satisfaction with care, better symptom control, improved communication with healthcare providers and improved caregiver quality of life.


Options:
A: Inclusion Criteria:

* Age ≥ 18 years
* Dx of stage IV cancer (metastatic); refractory to hormonal therapy for breast or prostate cancer; stage III or IV for lung cancer.
* ECOG performance status ≤ 2 (estimated by primary oncologist)
* Prognosis of \>6 months to 2 years (estimated by primary oncologist)

Exclusion Criteria:

* Insufficient English literacy to complete questionnaires
* Inability of pass the cognitive screening test (SOMC - Short Orientation Memory Concentration test score \<20 or \>10 errors)
B: Inclusion Criteria:

* Ability to speak Cantonese
* Living within the hospital service area
* Ability to be contacted by phone
* Identified as end-stage heart failure eligible for palliative care, guided by Prognostic Indicator Guidance, National Gold Standards Framework,to fulfill at least two of the indicators below:

  (i) Congestive heart failure New York Heart Association stage III or IV (ii) Patient thought to be in the last year of life by the care team (iii) Repeated hospital admissions with symptoms of heart failure (3 hospital admissions within one year) (iv) Existence of physical or psychological symptoms despite optimal tolerated therapy

Exclusion Criteria:

* Discharged to nursing home or other institution
* Inability to communicate
* Diagnosed with severe psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder
C: Inclusion Criteria:

* Adult (at least 18 year old) cancer patients connected to the Department of Oncology, Copenhagen University Hospital
* Patients who want to spend as much time as possible in their own homes supported by an SPT
* Patients with incurable cancer
* Patients with no or limited antineoplastic treatment options or patients who resign antineoplastic treatment
* Patients living in the Capital Region
* Written informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

* Patients who have already been referred to an SPT
* Hospitalized patients who are not judged capable of being discharged home
* Patients who are admitted to other hospitals
* Patients who do not speak Danish well enough to answer the questionnaires
* Patients who are considered incapable of cooperating in the trial
D: Inclusion Criteria:

1. 18 years of age or older;
2. diagnosis of HF, COPD, or advanced cancer;
3. one or more hospitalizations or ED visits in the previous year;
4. an Australia-Modified Karnofsky Performance Scale score of 70% or less; and
5. English- or Spanish-speaking.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. is receiving hospice care;
2. has end-stage renal disease; and/or
3. lives in a nursing home.

Answer: A