Background: Among various chronic diseases, cancer is one of which could cause enormous pain to a patient during the final stages of one’s life. The recent Hospice Movement since the 1960s marked a revival of palliative care as an alternative option for terminally ill patients. While a lot of palliative care emphasises the role of pain soothing, there are also substantial publications that try to measure the quality of the end-of-life care1,2.

Objectives: The quality of the end-of-life care is important as it enhances the capability of cancer patients to die in a dignified and preferred manner. However, existing indicators have different focuses and hinder cross-country comparisons.

Methods: This paper attempts to do a systemic literature review of the European publications on the measurement of the concept of end-of-life care, with a particular attention given to cancer patients. Despite the differentiations on the symptoms and severity of pain suffered by cancer patients at the final stage of their lives, the paper aims at surveying the existing criteria employed in measuring the quality of the care offered. This is a precursor for attempting to find how a standardization of the measurement is viable for comparisons.

Conclusions: The paper concludes with a discussion on the possibilities of deriving a comparable measurement on the quality of end-of-life care of cancer patients.

References

1. Engelberg RA, Downey L, Wenrich MD, Carline JD, Silvestri GA, Dotolo D, et al. (2010) Measuring the quality of end-of-life care. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 39(6):951-71.

2. Singer PA, Bowman KW (2002) Quality end-of-life care: A gloabal perspective. BMC Palliative Care, 1(1):4.