Cancer Palliative Care

Palliative care is a specialty that provides multidisciplinary expertise in symptom management, establishing a prognosis, assisting patients and families in setting goals of care, and helping patients make decisions about the benefits or risks of burdensome life supporting therapies. Most large hospitals and cancer centers now have palliative care consultation services available. There are also growing numbers of outpatient palliative care clinics. The most common reason to consult a palliative care expert is to control a difficult symptom such as pain, shortness of breath, constipation, anxiety, or depression.