Dedicated to Discovery. Committed to Care.

Center for Psycho-oncology and Palliative Care Research

The overarching goal of the center is to conduct research that will be used to promote the well-being of cancer patients and their significant others. More specifically, the center's mission is to advance the understanding of factors affecting the quality of life and quality of care of advanced cancer patients and their caregivers (e.g., spouses/partners, children). This aim is achieved by conducting research on the following factors affecting the health care and adjustment of advanced cancer patients and their caregivers:

  • Sociodemographic factors such as ethnicity, age, and gender;
  • Psychosocial factors such as spirituality, coping styles, resilience, prognostic awareness, mental health;
  • Clinical care such as:
    • referral to palliative care (e.g., timing of, duration, dose, integration and comprehensiveness of palliative care services);
    • access to and outcomes of mental health and pastoral care
    • detection and management of physical and psychosocial impairment;
    • physician/clinician factors such as clinical communication, clinician burnout

For more information about this program, please contact us at PsychooncResearch@partners.org.

Study findings

screenshot from Dr. Alexi Wright video

Patients who had end-of-life discussions with their physicians had improved quality of life, say Dana-Farber researchers.
Read more  |  View video

Related story

Study confirms normal patterns of grief, highlights yearning

Dana-Farber researchers have affirmed the commonly accepted stages of grief — disbelief, yearning, anger, depression, and acceptance — and the sequence in which these emotions occur.
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Order diagnostic tools

If you'd like to order the Prolonged Grief Disorder (PG-13) diagnostic tool, or any other diagnostic tool developed at the Center for Psycho-oncology and Palliative Care Research, please call Maureen Clark at (617) 632-3248 or e-mail PsychooncResearch
@partners.org
.