Palliative Cancer Care
Supportive care focused on symptom relief, comfort and quality of life alongside cancer treatment or when disease control is no longer the main goal
What is palliative cancer care?
Palliative care treats the symptoms of cancer and the burden of its treatment: pain, breathlessness, sickness, poor appetite, constipation, disturbed sleep and low mood. A specialist team looks after those while your oncologist looks after the cancer.
It is not the same as stopping treatment and it is not only for the last weeks of life. It runs alongside chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery, and people are referred at any point after a diagnosis of advanced cancer. In advanced lung cancer, patients seen early by a palliative care team reported better quality of life and mood than those referred late.
The team is usually a doctor and specialist nurses, with access to a physiotherapist, a dietitian, a counsellor and a social worker.
What it involves
The first appointment is a long consultation, commonly forty five minutes to an hour. You are asked to describe each symptom, what makes it better or worse, everything you are taking and how you are managing at home. Someone close to you is welcome to be there.
The team then puts a plan in place: adjusting pain relief, treating sickness or constipation, arranging oxygen or breathing techniques, referring you for a procedure to drain fluid, and organising practical support at home. Nothing is done that needs an anaesthetic or preparation.
Follow-up is by clinic visits, home visits or telephone, at a frequency set by how you are. Most teams give you a number to call when something changes between appointments.
Recovery
There is no recovery period, since nothing is done to you that has to heal. What changes is week to week. A pain plan often takes a few days to get right and is adjusted by phone until it is; appetite and energy respond more slowly.
Use the contact number when pain breaks through, when you cannot keep tablets or fluids down, when breathlessness worsens, or when a carer at home is struggling. Getting on top of a symptom early is far easier than rescuing it late, and that is what the number between visits is for.
Questions about palliative cancer care
Does a referral mean my cancer treatment is being given up on?
No. Palliative care runs alongside cancer treatment, and many people see both teams for years. The referral is about controlling symptoms so you can get on with life and often tolerate the cancer treatment better. Your oncologist continues to manage the cancer itself.
Will strong painkillers make me drowsy or addicted?
Used for cancer pain and reviewed regularly, opioids rarely cause addiction. Your body does become used to them, which is a different thing and is accounted for when doses change. Drowsiness is common in the first few days and usually wears off; if it does not, or if you become confused, tell the team so the plan can be adjusted.
Can the team see me at home?
Most palliative care services combine clinic appointments with home visits and telephone review, and the balance depends on how easily you can travel. A home visit also lets the team see what practical help would make a difference, from equipment to support for whoever is caring for you. Ask at the first appointment what your service covers.
Other medical oncology treatments
Cancer treatment using medicines that destroy cancer cells or slow their growth, based on the type and stage of cancer
Day CareTreatment that helps the immune system recognise and fight certain cancers
Day CareTalk to a care coordinator about palliative cancer care
Leave a number and a care coordinator calls you back with what the treatment involves and which hospital it would be at. They book a consult only if you want one