Cancer Therapy, Palliative: Purpose
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More about Cancer Therapy, Palliative:
Definition Purpose Precautions Preparation Aftercare Risks Resources |
Palliative care is directed to improving symptoms associated with incurable cancer. Care can include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, symptomatic treatments resulting from cancer, and side effects of treatment. The primary objective of palliative care is to improve the quality of remaining duration of life. Treatment usually involves a combination of modalities (multimodality approach) and numerous specialists are typically involved in the treatment planning process. Therapeutic planning usually involves meticulous coordination with the treatment team.
Surgery can be utilized for palliation after careful evaluation and planning. The use of surgery in these cases may reduce the tumor bulk and help improve the quality of life by relieving pain, alleviating obstruction, or controlling bleeding. Radiotherapy for terminal cancer patients can also alleviate pain, bleeding, and obstruction of neighboring areas. Chemotherapy may be helpful to reduce tumor size and provide some reduction to metastatic disease. Long-term chemotherapy patients develop drug resistance, a situation that renders chemotherapeutic treatments ineffective. If this occurs patients are usually given a second line medication or, if admission criteria are met, they may participate in an experimental research protocol. Palliative treatments and terminal cancer in combination can cause many symptoms that can become problematic. These symptoms commonly include pain, nausea, vomiting, difficulty in breathing, constipation, dehydration, agitation, and delirium. The palliative treatment-planning goal focuses to reduce these symptoms.
— Laith Farid Gulli, M.D.; Nicole Mallory, M.S.
