Poster Presentation Clinical Oncology Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting 2024

National Pancreatic Cancer Roadmap: developing pathways to pain management and early palliative care for people with pancreatic cancer (#463)

Jennifer Philip 1 2 3 , Melanie Lovell 4 , Isabel E Young 4 , Kylee Bellingham 3 , Georgia Christopoulos 3 , Mei Krishnasamy 5 , Gregory Crawford 6 7 , Nicole Rankin 8 , Gail Garvey 9 , Kara Burns 10 , Farwa Rizvi 2
  1. Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic, Australia
  2. St Vincent's Hospital, Fitzroy , VIC, Australia
  3. Medicine, University of Melbourne , Parkville, Victoria, Australia
  4. Palliative Care, HammondCare, Greenwich , NSW, Australia
  5. School of Nursing, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic, Australia
  6. Medicine, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
  7. Palliative Medicine, Lyell McEwin Hospital, Modbury, South Australia, Australia
  8. School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic, Australia
  9. Indigenous Health Research, Univeristy of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  10. Centre for Digital Transformation of Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic, Australia

Aims: The National Pancreatic Cancer Roadmap, developed by Cancer Australia, details a set of priorities towards improving care and outcomes for people affected by pancreatic cancer. This project aimed to develop pathways to timely pain management and early palliative care along with clinical guidance, education for health professionals, information for patients, digital solutions and implementation recommendations to support the Roadmap.  

Method: Themed Working Groups (n=4) comprised of clinicians (across disciplines) and community members met on four occasions to consider evidence from literature reviews, enriched by lived experience to develop suggestions for project outputs. These suggestions were in turn considered by stakeholder groups (n=4). The stakeholder groups included clinicians, patients, caregivers, culturally and linguistically diverse people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and peak pancreatic cancer groups across all states and regions, with feedback in turn provided to the Working Groups. In this iterative manner project outputs were produced. 

Digital solutions and Implementation recommendations were similarly produced by targeted literature reviews, supplemented with experience and ‘road-testing’ potential solutions with participants as well as digital IT providers.  

Results: In total, 84 participants contributed to produce the pathways to pain management and early palliative care and supporting materials. This involved: 10 literature reviews, 11 evidence summaries, 5 environment scans, 37 meetings, and 15 digital IT interviews. Data from these activities informed production of pathways to timely pain management, to early palliative care, a pain assessment tool, clinical guidance to support the pathways including for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, health professional education module and patient information about interventional pain management, implementation strategies for the pathways and guiding principles to inform equitable digital solution development.  

Conclusion: Extensive consultation and longitudinal iterative processes enabled the development of nationally applicable pathways to improve care for people with pancreatic cancer.