Palliative care is specialized medical care for people living with a serious illness, aimed at improving quality of life for both patient and family. It treats pain, nausea, breathlessness, fatigue, appetite loss, anxiety, depression and other symptoms; helps with goals-of-care conversations and decision-making; and coordinates support across the care team. Crucially, it is appropriate at any stage and can be delivered at the same time as curative or life-prolonging cancer treatment — it is not the same as hospice, which is care focused on comfort in the last months of life when disease-directed treatment has stopped. Studies show early palliative care improves symptoms and quality of life, and in some settings is associated with better outcomes.
Delivered by a team that can include palliative-medicine physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains and others, in the clinic, hospital or at home. It works alongside the oncology team. Referral can (and ideally does) happen early, not only near the end of life.
The focus is comfort, function and quality of life. As illness changes, the plan is adjusted; if a time comes when disease-directed treatment is no longer helping, palliative care can transition to include hospice services.