Identification of palliative care needs and prognostic factors of survival for tailoring appropriate interventions in advanced oncological, renal, and pulmonary diseases: results from a prospective observational study in an Italian population.

@article{scarpi2026identification,
  title = {{Identification of palliative care needs and prognostic factors of survival for tailoring appropriate interventions in advanced oncological, renal, and pulmonary diseases: results from a prospective observational study in an Italian population.}},
  author = {Emanuela Scarpi and Vanessa Valenti and Monia Dall'Agata and Ilaria Bassi and Lucia Angelini and Andrea Carlini and Paola Cravero and Angelo Delmonte and Gaetano La Manna and Giacomo Magnoni and Martina Marchello and Giovanni Mosconi and Oriana Nanni and Stefano Nava and Margherita Currà and Maria Caterina Pallotti and Ilario Giovanni Rapposelli and Marianna Ricci and Anna Scrivo and Alessandra Spazzoli and Danila Valenti and Loretta Zambianchi and Augusto Caraceni and Marco Maltoni and Romina Rossi},
  journal = {BMC palliative care},
  year = {2026},
  month = aug,
  doi = {10.1186/s12904-026-02257-z},
  url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42972337},
  note = {CC BY},
}

TY  - JOUR
TI  - Identification of palliative care needs and prognostic factors of survival for tailoring appropriate interventions in advanced oncological, renal, and pulmonary diseases: results from a prospective observational study in an Italian population.
AU  - Emanuela Scarpi
AU  - Vanessa Valenti
AU  - Monia Dall'Agata
AU  - Ilaria Bassi
AU  - Lucia Angelini
AU  - Andrea Carlini
AU  - Paola Cravero
AU  - Angelo Delmonte
AU  - Gaetano La Manna
AU  - Giacomo Magnoni
AU  - Martina Marchello
AU  - Giovanni Mosconi
AU  - Oriana Nanni
AU  - Stefano Nava
AU  - Margherita Currà
AU  - Maria Caterina Pallotti
AU  - Ilario Giovanni Rapposelli
AU  - Marianna Ricci
AU  - Anna Scrivo
AU  - Alessandra Spazzoli
AU  - Danila Valenti
AU  - Loretta Zambianchi
AU  - Augusto Caraceni
AU  - Marco Maltoni
AU  - Romina Rossi
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/08/05
JO  - BMC palliative care
DO  - 10.1186/s12904-026-02257-z
UR  - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42972337
AB  - Background  The increasing prevalence of chronic diseases makes identifying patients in need of palliative care essential for public health systems. Several tools have been developed to identify patients with palliative care needs and limited life expectancy. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of the NECPAL and PaP tools in patients with advanced chronic diseases and to explore their potential role in identifying palliative care needs and prognostic assessment.Methods  Prospective, observational, multicenter study using the Necesidades Paliativas tool (NECPAL CCOMS-ICO version 1.0), Palliative Prognostic score (PaP score), and functional and symptom assessment tools (Palliative Performance Scale and Edmonton Symptom Assessment System), assessed monthly or every two months for up to 12 months. Information on healthcare utilization and end-of-life care was also collected. Sensitivity, specificity, positive/negative predictive value and accuracy were calculated. The study included three groups of patients with advanced chronic diseases: cancer, pulmonary diseases, and renal diseases. The study was reported following the STROBE guidelines.Results  One hundred and ninety-three patients were enrolled: 102 with advanced cancer, 50 with chronic respiratory failure, and 41 with chronic renal failure. The median age was 75 years and 63.7% were male. The overall survival rate was 90% at 30 days and 65% at 12 months. At 30 days, sensitivity and specificity were 100% and 88% for the PaP score, and 89% and 39% for NECPAL. At 12 months, sensitivity and specificity were 20% and 89% for the PaP score, and 88% and 41% for NECPAL. Prognostic accuracy was higher for the PaP score at 30 days (91%) and higher for the NECPAL tool at 12 months (81%). Patients with cancer had more frequent hospitalizations in acute units, while the people living with pulmonary disease had more total hospitalization days.Conclusions  The findings suggest that the two instruments may provide complementary information, although the potential benefit of a combined strategy was not directly evaluated in this study.
SN  - 1472-684X
ER  -