Literature Review

[Netherlands] Voluntarily stopping eating and drinking as a self-chosen path for end of lifeWorld Medical Journal; Gert van Dijk, Veelke Derckx, Alexander de Graeff; 6/25Moving into the future, it is likely that doctors and other healthcare providers will be confronted more often with patients who would like to explore options for controlling their end of life care. They should correctly inform patients about the various clinical care options, including VSED [voluntarily stopping eating and drinking], and carefully guide them in the event of a decision to choose VSED. If healthcare providers have conscientious objections in providing care to people who choose VSED, then care must be transferred to a healthcare provider who is willing to provide the necessary care.

[United Kingdom] Hospice staff learn life-saving skillsehospice, UK Edition, Derbyshire, UK; 7/26/25 Treetops Hospice is upskilling all its staff, from nurses to fundraisers, with essential life-saving skills, including CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and defibrillator use, through Basic Life Saving (BLS) training. The hospice, based in Risley, Derbyshire, welcomes hundreds of people through its doors every year. The rollout of the vital BLS training programme reflects the simple truth that anyone, anywhere, can face a medical emergency. ... Phil Shreeve, Director of Clinical Services, explained, “Just because we provide end-of-life care doesn’t mean we ignore medical emergencies.  We have a lot of people on site, including patients, families and carers, staff and volunteers, and even the general public who can walk around our grounds.

[Sweden] Ethical reflection: The palliative care ethos and patients who refuse informationPalliative Care & Social Practice; Joar Björk; 7/25Situations wherein a patient refuses potentially important information present tricky ethical challenges for palliative care staff. Taken as a whole, the palliative care ethos seems to recommend a strategy of using communication skills and time to try to get information across to the patient without forcing things. The recommendation is nuanced and highly contextualised, which increases its validity for clinical practice. Some meta-ethical questions are discussed regarding the use of the palliative care ethos as a source of guidance in ethically challenging clinical situations.

Estimating the number of services & patients receiving specialized palliative care globally in 2025 Journal of Pain and Symptom Management; by Stephen R Connor, Eduardo Garralda, Vilma A Tripodoro, Carlos Centeno; 7/28/25 online ahead of print ... In 2025, the estimated number of specialized palliative care service delivery teams worldwide reached approximately 33,700 - representing a 32.7% increase from the 25,000 identified in 2017. Service delivery expanded across all WHO regions except Africa. The estimated number of patients served rose from 7 million in 2017 to approximately 10.4 million in 2025. This figure represents roughly 14% of the total global need for palliative care. ... Despite notable growth in service availability, significant disparities persist, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. While over half of the need appears to be met in high-income countries, only 4.4% is addressed by specialist provision in low and middle-income countries. 

[Finland] Moral psychological exploration of the asymmetry effect in AI-assisted euthanasia decisionsCognition; by Michael Laakasuo, Anton Kunnari, Kathryn Francis, Michaela Jirout Košová, Robin Kopecký, Paolo Buttazzoni, Mika Koverola, Jussi Palomäki, Marianna Drosinou, Ivar Hannikainen; 9/25A recurring discrepancy in attitudes toward decisions made by human versus artificial agents, termed the Human-Robot moral judgment asymmetry, has been documented in moral psychology of AI. Our studies documented reduced approval of an AI doctor's decision to withdraw life support relative to a human doctor. This effect persisted regardless of whether the AI assumed a recommender role or made the final medical decision, but, importantly, disappeared under two conditions: when doctors kept on rather than withdraw life support, and when they carried out active euthanasia (e.g., providing a lethal injection or removing a respirator on the patient's demand) rather than passive euthanasia. These findings highlight two contextual factors–the level of automation and the patient's autonomy–that influence the presence of the asymmetry effect, neither of which is not predicted by existing theories. Finally, we found that the asymmetry effect was partly explained by perceptions of AI incompetence and limited explainability. As the role of AI in medicine continues to expand, our findings help to outline the conditions under which stakeholders disfavor AI over human doctors in clinical settings.Publisher's note: I find this study simultaneously interesting and unsettling...

[United Kingdom] The Sussex Beacon to become UK’S first LGBTQ+ hospice with HIV specialism Sussex Health & Care; Press Release; 7/18/25 In a landmark development, The Sussex Beacon has announced it is to become the UK’s only dedicated hospice for LGBTQ+ people, uniquely combining inclusive care with expertise in specialist HIV care. The Sussex Beacon is refreshing its approach to palliative and end-of-life care services, expanding its offer to the wider LGBTQ+ community, regardless of HIV status. ... Decades of experience supporting people with HIV have given The Sussex Beacon deep insight into the ongoing impact of stigma and health inequalities. National research, including Hospice UK’s report “I Just Want To Be Me”, which examines access to care for trans & gender-diverse people and insights from LGBTQ+ organisations.

The 4th and 5th Annual U.S. World Hospice and Palliative Care Day conferences: Unifying the global palliative care community Palliative & Supportive Care; by William E Rosa, Shila Pandey, Andrew S Epstein, Liz Blackler, Lauren Akua Koranteng, Dana Greenfield, Paul Yoon, Craig D Blinderman, Judith E Nelson, William S Breitbart; 7/18/25 On October 3-4, 2023 and September 30-October 1, 2024, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Supportive Care Service hosted the 4th and 5th Annual U.S. Celebration of World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (WHPCD) conferences, respectively. This article describes both events and lessons learned in anticipation of the 6th annual conference to be held October 6-7, 2025.

[Norway] iLIVE volunteer study: Volunteer and healthcare professional perceptions of newly developed hospital end-of-life-care volunteer services, in five countriesPalliative Medicine; Tamsin McGlinchey, Stephen Mason, Grethe Skorpen Iversen, Dagny Faksvåg Haugen, Inmaculada Ruiz Torreras, Pilar Barnestein Fonseca, Miša Bakan, Berivan Yildiz, Ruthmarijke Smeding, Anne Goossensen, Agnes van der Heide, John Ellershaw; 5/25Volunteer services that provide direct support to patients receiving palliative and end-of-life care in hospitals are new and developing, but little is known about the use and experience of such services from key stakeholders. 20 Volunteers and 20 healthcare professionals were recruited. Three overall themes were generated: (1) Volunteers provided 'unique, distinct, 'community' support' bringing familiarity to an unfamiliar, medically focussed environment. (2) Volunteers were able to 'establish a connection centred on 'being there' within the acute hospital environment' despite the fast paced and highly changeable environment. (3) Through 'relational interactions adapted to the individual person' volunteers attended to patients' existential and emotional needs. These services confer benefits that are transferrable across cultures and countries, 'fusing' formal care with the informal visiting of family or friends, attending to patients' existential needs.

[UK] Caring for a patient with inoperable hip fractureBMJ Supportive and Palliative Care; Arouba Imtiaz, Amelia Collins, Fiona Rawlinson, Antony Johansen; 6/25Hip fractures pose significant challenges, particularly in managing severe incident pain in people who are not fit for surgery. We present the case of an older man with multiple comorbidities who was managed non-operatively. Standard opioids caused sedation with limited pain relief. Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) with intravenous fentanyl provided effective, short-acting relief, allowing the patient to remain alert and engage in care. This case highlights PCA as a practical option for managing incident pain in selected palliative patients.

[England] Marie Curie hospice unit to close permanently BBC News; Liverpool, England; by Angela Ferguson and Marc Gaier; 7/5/25 Liverpool's Marie Curie hospice inpatient unit is to shut permanently after it was temporarily closed last year, the charity has said. The hospice's 26-bed unit in Woolton was closed in July 2024 due to a shortage of specialist nursing staff. Chief executive Matthew Reed said it was "an incredibly tough decision" in the face of "significant financial deficits" but they remained committed to providing care in other ways. Campaigners from the Liverpool Hospice Action Group described the news as "devastating" and called on Marie Curie to allow another provider to step in and run the unit.Editor's Note: Closing Marie Curie's hospice inpatient unit is significant and reflects trends throughout the UK. Though the international articles we post are limited, Hospice & Palliative Care Today has published 16 articles from or about Marie Curie's hospice services in the shart 16 months of our newsletter. 

[Italy] Palliative Performance Scale predicts mortality in cardiac intensive care unitOpen Heart; by Laura Sofia Cardelli, Lorenzo Gamberini, Beatrice Dal Passo, Silvia Zagnoni, Francesca Sciarra, Federica Frascaro, Alice Vitagliano, Valeria Carinci, Maria Laura Canale, Gianni Casella; 6/25Patients with PPS ≤70 had significantly higher 1-year all-cause mortality and in-hospital all-cause mortality. The PPS is a reliable and independent predictor of mortality in CICU patients. Incorporating PPS into clinical practice may enhance risk stratification, guide decision-making and optimise resource allocation in this high-risk population.

[Korea] Alzheimer Disease in Breast Cancer survivorsJAMA Network; by Su-Min Jeong, Wonyoung Jung, Hyeonjin Cho, Hea Lim Choi, Keun Hye Jeon, Ki-Woong Nam, Yun-Gyoo Lee, Bongseong Kim, Kyungdo Han, Dong Wook Shin; 6/20Is breast cancer survivorship associated with the risk of Alzheimer dementia (AD), and how are cancer treatments associated with this risk? Breast cancer survivors may have a slightly lower risk of AD compared with cancer-free individuals, potentially influenced by cancer treatments, underscoring the need for further research on long-term neurocognitive outcomes in this population.

[China] Efficacy of music therapy on quality of life in cancer patients: A systematic review and meta-analysisPsycho-Oncology; Ting Luo, Suting Zhang, Mi Zhao, Hong Song, Shuo Wang, Jing Han; 5/25Music therapy was effective in improving the QoL [quality of life] of patients with cancer, with passive music therapy being superior to active-passive music therapy. Meanwhile, anxiety and depression were relieved as well.