Summary: 

WHO defines palliative care as “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 may be referred to as supportive care, symptom management or comfort care. For the purposes of this series the term palliative care is used throughout.