Palliative Care for Cancer
Palliative care refers to the primary prevention and treatment of diseases through the use of therapeutic methods. In the field of medicine, palliative care has been recognized as a specialized form of primary healthcare that focuses on extending life and preventing death. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), palliative care is "a medicine directed at improving the quality of life of patients with cancer who are at imminent risk of dying due to curable causes." The definition of palliative care indicates that the goal of this specialty is to provide a humane therapeutic environment in which the symptoms of diseases are effectively managed and controlled while the disease is still treatable and the end-of-life experience is made as comfortable, peaceful and acceptable as possible for the patient.
Palliative Care is an interdisciplinary approach focused on optimizing quality of life for individuals with serious, incurable diseases. In the medical literature, several different definitions of palliative care have been published. However, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), palliative care is provided "to improve the quality of life of patients with cancer who are at a stage of irreversible disease, when other treatments would be too painful, prolonging the life expectancy of the patient." According to the WHO, palliative care can be broadly categorized into two areas: basic and advanced clinical care.
According to the American Cancer Society, basic palliative care entails providing the basic levels of relief such as pain management, drug and nutritional therapy, and emotional support to patients with cancer. Advanced clinical palliative care incorporates additional methods of pain control such as radiation oncology and targeted therapies, and other pharmacological and psychosocial interventions. Many hospitals and health maintenance organizations (HMOs) offer both types of services to their patients. Many hospitals also offer palliative care through the Medicare program.