Palliative oncology: identity, progress, and the path ahead

Palliative care is a rapidly growing subspecialty of medicine entailing expert and active assessment, evaluation and treatment of the physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs of patients and families with serious illnesses. It provides an added layer of support to the patient's regular medical care. As cancer is detected earlier and its treatments improve, palliative care is increasingly playing a vital role in the oncology population. Because of these advances in oncology, the role of palliative care services for such patients is actively evolving. Herein, we will highlight emerging paradigms in palliative care and attempt to delineate key education, research and policy areas that lie ahead for the field of palliative oncology. Despite the critical need for improving multi-faceted and multi-specialty symptom management and patient-physician communication, we will focus on the interface between palliative care and oncology specialists, a relationship that can lead to better overall patient care on all of these levels.