Supportive care utilisation in pancreatic and oesophagogastric cancers

Pancreatic and oesophagogastric cancers have a poor prognosis and high symptom burden making supportive care critical. This thesis aimed to explore the uptake and quality of supportive care. Analysis of data across Victoria, Australia demonstrated that utilisation of supportive care services, including palliative care, following a pancreatic or oesophagogastric cancer diagnosis was generally low and varied according to socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. Interviews with people living with pancreatic and oesophagogastric cancers revealed that there was a desire for access to more timely, culturally-appropriate and high-quality multidisciplinary supportive care. Finally, a review of clinical trials available to people living with pancreatic cancer highlighted that there are very few trials investigating supportive care related interventions. Overall, the findings of this thesis indicate that there is significant opportunity to improve accessibility to and the quality of supportive care in pancreatic and oesophagogastric cancers.