Crawford Strunk, MD, on the Importance of Palliative Care in Sickle Cell Disease

“The big picture for our results is that if you have access to palliative care, our study demonstrates that integrating them into your sickle cell comprehensive care model is integral to helping reduce length of stay and to improve inpatient and outpatient pain management, improve opioid stewardship, and provide wraparound care for patients who suffer from chronic pain and acute on chronic pain.”

In recent years, a number of transformative new therapies have become available for sickle cell disease (SCD), including Vertex Pharmaceuticals' and CRISPR Therapeutics’ gene editing therapy exagamglogene autotemcel (exa-cel; marketed as Casgevy) and bluebird bio’s gene addition therapy lovotibeglogene autotemcel (lovo-cel; marketed as Lyfgenia). As such, the the treatment of SCD has moved far beyond mere symptom management.

That said, the role of palliative care in SCD may still remain critically important to the optimization of patient outcomes. According to a study presented at the 67th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition, held December 6 to 9, 2025, in Orlando, Florida, the introduction of palliative care was able to reduce the length of stay for hospitalized patients with SCD by approximately 65%.

At the conference, CGTLive® spoke to Crawford Strunk, MD, an associate staff member at the Cleveland Clinic and the codirector of the Sickle Cell Medical Neighborhood, who presented the data, to learn more. Strunk explained how his team at Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital integrated palliative care into their sickle cell “medical neighborhood” to improve pain management. He noted that they added a palliative care and hematology consult trigger, built individualized care plans, and integrated hospitalist teams. Strunk also discussed future plans for further research, noting that it remains to be seen how durable the model will be and that more information will be needed to determine whether any adjustments need to be made to the model tested.

For more coverage of ASH 2025, click here.

REFERENCE
1. Strunk C, Neale K, Albright C, et al. Integrating palliative care improves pain management and reduces length of stay in a comprehensive lifespan sickle cell center. Presented at: ASH 2025 Annual Meeting. December 6-9, 2025; Orlando, FL. Abstract #123