End of life care for patients with meningioma.

Palliative care (PC) supports patient with serious illnesses and can help patients with meningioma through the phases of their clinical trajectory, from initial diagnosis through the last hours of life. The PC team implements a multimodal transdisciplinary approach to address physical, psychosocial, and spiritual suffering with patients and their families, while also fostering constructive communication with the many health care providers involved. To achieve these goals the PC core team is comprised of physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, social workers, and spiritual care providers who are trained to take care of patients with serious illnesses and to provide support to their families. The PC intervention can be instituted concurrently with all other treatments including those with a curative intent, and symptom management can be implemented while at the same time addressing reversible causes of distress. PC is practiced in acute care centers and long-term care facilities, usually by a consulting team, but other settings include outpatient clinics and home. When patients experience recurrence of their tumor and their life expectancy is shortened to 6 months or less, a hospice can provide the same transdisciplinary support by focusing on quality of life and symptom management for the patient while assisting the family through the clinical course and providing professional bereavement services after the patient's death.