• Michael W Rabow and Sarah J Knish.
• Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA, mrabow@medicine.ucsf.edu.
• Support Care Cancer. 2015 Apr 1;23(4):919-23.

PurposeSpiritual well-being is threatened by cancer, but its correlation with other illness symptoms and the efficacy of palliative care (PC) to ameliorate spiritual suffering are not well understood.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective study using a convenience sample of oncology patients at a comprehensive cancer center who received concurrent oncologic and palliative care between 2008 and 2011 and completed ESAS, QUAL-E, and Steinhauser Spiritual well-being survey questions was conducted. Descriptive, correlation, and t test statistics.ResultsEight hundred eighty-three patients surveyed had an average age of 65.6 years, with 54.1 % female, 69.3 % white, and 49.3 % married. Half (452, 51.2 %) had metastatic disease. Religious affiliation was reported as Christian by 20.3 %, Catholic by 18.7 %, and "none" by 39.0 %. Baseline spiritual well-being was not significantly correlated with age, gender, race, cancer stage, marital status, insurance provider, or having a religious affiliation. Greater spiritual well-being was correlated with greater quality of life (ConclusionsAmong patients with cancer receiving concurrent oncologic and palliative care, spiritual well-being was not associated with patient age, gender, or race, or disease stage. It was correlated with physical and emotional symptoms. Spiritual well-being scores improved from just prior to the initial PC consultation to just prior to the first PC follow-up visit.

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