Fast Facts Vol. 41, No. 1

New Evidence on the Benefits of Palliative Care

• New research published in JNCCN found significant disparities based on race, socioeconomic status, and other factors when it came to quality of care and outcomes for people with metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma.
• The study found that patients who did receive appropri­ate systemic and/or palliative care were more likely to survive longer than a year after being diagnosed.
• The study also found improvement over time, across the study period from 2005 to 2019, in both quality scores and longevity.

Source: Authors: Tsilimigras D, Woldesenbet S, Waterman B, Noonan A, and Pawlik T. Quality score among patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: Trends, racial disparities, and impact on outcomes. JNCCN. 2025;23(4). doi:10.6004/jnccn.2024.7089.

Survey Reveals Loneliness as the Most Overlooked Risk Factor in Chronic Care

According to a national study that surveyed over 2000 Americans:

• 74% of patients report that loneliness negatively affects their physical health.
• 52% said loneliness interfered with taking medications as prescribed.
• 41% avoided picking up a prescription due to emotional disengagement.
• 2 in 3 patients said their loneliness worsened after being diagnosed with a chronic illness.

Source. Loneliness and Health Behaviors: A Missing Link in Chronic Care. Pleio.
Published April 28, 2025.

Key Findings From a Report on the State of Infusion Centers

• 82% of centers struggle with access to actionable data.
• 62% of centers report that managing patient flow and
  scheduling is their most significant challenge.
• 54% of centers state that scheduling and capacity manage- ment would benefit from advanced technology or AI tools.
• 47% of centers cite midday scheduling peaks as a major bottleneck to efficient patient flow.
• 43% of respondents identify integration within existing systems
  as the biggest concern when implementing AI.
• 37% of report that data access and lack of data interpreting tools are the biggest barriers to using data effectively.

Source. The State of Cancer Centers in 2025. LeanTaaS. Published June 2025.

AI-Led Cancer Triage Platform Detects More Patients With Cancer; Reduces Urgent Referrals

An abstract published in Cancer Research evaluated over 235,000 patient risk assessments conducted across 1084 general practitioners between January 2020 and September 2024, and found that:

• 13,585 cancers were diagnosed, improving cancer conversion rates by 20% compared to the UK National Health Service average.
• Over 61,000 unnecessary urgent cancer referrals were avoided.
• Patients benefited from safer, earlier diagnoses, and general practitioners received real-time decision support to better manage patient care.

Source. Payling M, Dadhania S, Moss M, Gordon J, Bakshi B. Abstract 2518: Implementing an AI triage platform for identification and management of patients suspected of cancer risk to improve elective recovery post pandemic. Cancer Research. 2025;85(5):2518. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2025-2518

Sunscreen Stats

• A survey of over 1000 US adults revealed that only half of the respondents regularly use sunscreen
• Nearly 1 in 4 respondents don’t know sunscreen prevents early aging
• Nearly 2 in 5 are unaware of the full benefits of sunscreen.

Source. American Academy of Dermatology Survey: Half of Americans Worry About Skin Aging, But Many Still Skip Sunscreen. American Academy of Dermatology Association. Published May 6, 2025