Role of Palliative Care in Improving Quality of Life among Advanced Cancer Patients

Palliative care is the total care of patients whose disease is not responsive to curative treatment. The control of pain, other distressing symptoms and improving quality of life are important goals of palliative care. The present study aims to analyze the role of palliative care in improving quality of life among advanced cancer patients. The data is collected by using QLQ-C30 questionnaire from 30 advanced cancer patients at their first and second visit to a palliative care unit in a tertiary care centre. The physical functioning among advanced cancer patients was found to be lowest and cognitive functioning was found to be highest at the first baseline assessment. The emotional, social and role functioning showed improvement with palliative care. In symptom scale, constipation, dyspnoea, insomnia, nausea, appetite loss and pain improved expect for fatigue. Findings of the study shows that advanced cancer patients benefited from the palliative care. Thus, it can be concluded that palliative care plays a very crucial role in improving QOL among advanced cancer patients.