In the sandbox: palliative care and hematologic malignancies.

Palliative care specialists have had little involvement in the care of patients with hematologic malignancies. The reasons for this are not clear, because these patients certainly face a significant symptom burden, and many hematologic malignancies are either incurable or carry poor prognoses. For example, acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in patients over age 60 has a 5-year survival of less than 10%, akin to pancreatic cancer. Although most oncologists would agree with involving palliative care specialists in the case of advanced pancreatic cancer, few seem to consider this in the context of AML. Why should AML be any different?