There is often the mistaken impression that Palliative Care is only appropriate to consider at the final stage of life.  On the contrary,  consultation with Palliative Care specialists about treatment can be helpful at any stage of the disease.

The World Health Organisation has this to say about Palliative Care:-

“Definition of Palliative Care

Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual. Palliative care:

* provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms;
* affirms life and regards dying as a normal process;
* intends neither to hasten or postpone death;
* integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care;
* offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death;
* offers a support system to help the family cope during the patients illness and in their own bereavement;
* uses a team approach to address the needs of patients and their families, including bereavement counselling, if indicated;
* will enhance quality of life, and may also positively influence the course of illness;
* is applicable early in the course of illness, in conjunction with other therapies that are intended to prolong life, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy, and includes those investigations needed to better understand and manage distressing clinical complications.

(http://www.who.int/cancer/palliative/definition/en/)

Effective palliative care requires a broad multidisciplinary approach that includes the family and makes use of available community resources;

Palliative care improves the quality of life of patients and families who face life-threatening illness, by providing pain and symptom relief, spiritual and psychosocial support to patients from diagnosis to the end of life and bereavement.”

http://www.who.int/cancer/palliative/en/