Palliative care

Last reviewed: 24 Sep 2025
Last updated: 23 Oct 2025

Summary

Details

  • Outpatient palliative care services
  • Hospice-care services
  • Need for palliative care
  • Role of prognostication
  • Goals of care
  • Comprehensive palliative care assessment
  • Illness trajectories
  • Overview of common symptoms experienced by patients in the palliative care setting
  • Overview of treatment of the seriously ill patient
  • Pain management
  • Dyspnea
  • Constipation
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Fatigue
  • Anorexia
  • Delirium
  • Nausea
  • Tools to document advance-care planning
  • Palliative sedation and medical aid in dying
  • Guidelines
Full details

Contributors

Authors

Jeanie Youngwerth, MD
Jeanie Youngwerth

Associate Professor of Medicine

Program Director

University of Colorado Hospital Palliative Care Service

University of Colorado School of Medicine

Aurora

CO

Disclosures

JY is a paid advisory board member for an R01 palliative care telemedicine patient/family experience grant proposal for the RAND Corporation; no contractual agreement. JY is a nonpaid vice-chair for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Adult Cancer Pain guidelines; no contractual agreement. JY received payment for faculty and presenting the NCCN Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS)-Compliant Pain Management Webinar Series; no contractual agreement. JY is an author of two references cited in this topic.

Oliver Minton, PhD, FRCP

Macmillan Consultant

Brighton and Sussex University Hospital

Brighton

UK

Disclosures

OM is lead co-applicant on a National Institute for Health and Care Research patient benefit looking at virtual reality. OM is Integrated Care Record lead for palliative care. OM is an associate editor for the BMJ Oncology. OM is part time advisor to Macmillan Cancer as their national end of life care clinician.

Peer reviewers

Diane E. Meier, MD

Gaisman Professor of Medical Ethics

Professor

Departments of Geriatrics and Medicine

Director

Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute

Director

Center to Advance Palliative Care

Mount Sinai School of Medicine

New York

NY

Disclosures

DEM has received NIH-NCI ROI funding greater than 6 figures USD. DEM declares that she has no competing interests.

Cari Levy, MD

Assistant Professor of Medicine

University of Colorado School of Medicine and the Denver Veterans Affairs Medical Center

Denver

CO

Disclosures

CL declares that she has no competing interests.

Cordt Kassner, PhD

Chief Executive Officer

Colorado Center for Hospice & Palliative Care

Colorado Springs

CO

Disclosures

CK declares that he has no competing interests.

Irene J. Higginson, BM, BS, BMedSci, PhD, FFPHM, FRCP

Professor

Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation

King's College London/King's Healthcare Partners

London

UK

Disclosures

IJH declares that she has no competing interests.

Peer reviewer acknowledgements

BMJ Best Practice topics are updated on a rolling basis in line with developments in evidence and guidance. The peer reviewers listed here have reviewed the content at least once during the history of the topic.

Disclosures

Peer reviewer affiliations and disclosures pertain to the time of the review.

References

Our in-house evidence and editorial teams collaborate with international expert contributors and peer reviewers to ensure that we provide access to the most clinically relevant information possible.

Key articles

National Comprehensive Cancer Network. NCCN clinical practice guidelines in oncology: adult cancer pain [internet publication].Full text

National Comprehensive Cancer Network. NCCN clinical practice guidelines in oncology: palliative care [internet publication].Full text

Sanders JJ, Temin S, Ghoshal A, et al. Palliative care for patients with cancer: ASCO guideline update. J Clin Oncol. 2024 Jul 1;42(19):2336-57.Full text  Abstract

Andersen BL, Lacchetti C, Ashing K, et al. Management of anxiety and depression in adult survivors of cancer: ASCO guideline update. J Clin Oncol. 2023 Jun 20;41(18):3426-53.Full text  Abstract

Reference articles

A full list of sources referenced in this topic is available to users with access to all of BMJ Best Practice.

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