Expectations of Patients in Palliative Situation

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

Questionnaire and Physical Exam: Questionnaires evaluating the expectations of patients in palliative situation, of paramedics and medical staff, concerning blood cell transfusions.

Study summary

To date, there is a lack of data about the benefit of blood cell transfusions for patients diagnosed of a hematologic malignancy who are not eligible for curative treatments. Furthermore, there is no clear guideline about how to transfuse these patients and when the blood cell transfusions should be stopped.

Allogenic stem cell transplantation is nowadays the only curative treatment for patients with high-risk myeloid neoplasms. Knowing that the median age at diagnostic for acute myeloid leukemia is 68 years and this incidence increases after 65 years, a lot of patients won't be eligible for allogenic stem cell transplantation.

Besides, patients with haematologic malignancies are prone to cytopenias, due to their pathology and the treatments used to limit its progression. A study estimate that these patients need a median of 4 blood cell units per month, and it is known that repeated transfusions are associated with an increased risk of dying in hospital.

Finally, it is estimate that there was a lack of 20 000 blood cell units in France in 2022.

It therefore seems essential to find ways to optimize blood transfusion prescriptions in this population of patients who won't be eligible for curative treatments, with the main idea of maintaining or even improving their quality of life.

The investigators will study the expectations of patients in palliative situation, paramedics and medical staff concerning blood cell transfusions, by asking them if whether or not they believe that the transfusion planed to be administer will benefit the patient. To do this, investigators will distribute questionnaires before each blood cell transfusions to patients who will be included, to the paramedic who administered the transfusion and to the physician who prescribed the transfusion.

It is to investigators knowledge the first study to compare the expectations of patients in palliative situation, paramedics and medical staff concerning blood cell transfusions in hematology department, and follow the evolution of these expectations prospectively.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Evaluation of the benefit of blood cell transfusion before each blood cell transfusion — up to 52 weeks
  Evaluate the concordance for the perceptions of the benefit of blood cell transfusions in a palliative situation in hematology department between patients, paramedical and medical staff

Trial sites (1)

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