At CHRI, a robust “Pain and Palliative Care services” are integrated with oncology care ever since its inception. The department comprises of Pain, Palliative and Home care services managed by three consultants and a home care team with a qualified doctor, palliative care nurse and a medical social worker.

Palliative treatment is to relieve symptoms and improve your quality of life. It can be used at any stage of an illness if there are troubling symptoms, such as pain or sickness. In advanced cancer, palliative treatment might help someone to live longer and more comfortably, even if they cannot be cured.

Palliative treatment is not just about medicines to control symptoms – such as painkillers and anti-sickness drugs. Cancer treatments can also reduce or get rid of symptoms. For example, they can help to reduce pain by shrinking a tumour and reducing pressure on nerves or surrounding tissues. Treatments used in this way include:

• chemotherapy
• radiotherapy
• hormone therapy
• targeted cancer drugs
• surgery