Multidisciplinary Team Meeting In Supportive Care: 12 Years Of Experience In A French Comprehensive Cancer Center

In 2006, in response to DHOS Circular 2005/101, we have created a multidisciplinary supportive care meeting. As available literature covering this subject is rare, we report here our own experience. For this purpose, available files from the six initial months of 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018 were analyzed, representing 405 situations corresponding to 352 patients. The majority of patients were women (55,7 %, n = 196) and the median age was 66 years old [20-93]. Treatment was curative in 8 % (n = 32) of the situations, palliative in 58 % (n = 233), exclusively palliative in 31.3 % (n = 128) and concerned post-cancer situations in 2.7 % (n = 11). The median number of participants in multidisciplinary team meeting was 10, with a regular presence of oncologists, palliative care team members, social workers, dietician, physiotherapist and psychologist. The two most common reasons for case presentation were advice on follow-up and support on a precise palliative situation. Multidisciplinary support care meeting decisions were relatively well implemented, with a compliance rate of 81.8 %. Nevertheless, cases were presented late with a median time of 1.5 months from presentation to patient death. The creation of a cross-supportive care department has increased this meeting relevance and it would be important in the near future to evaluate whether this organization allows a better foresight of supportive care.