By William G. Nelson, MD, PhD
Palliative care, derived from the Latin word “pallium” for cloak, addresses symptoms and distress accompanying serious illnesses. The field is emerging as a vital medical specialty in the multidisciplinary treatment of cancer.
While the notion that physicians should seek both to cure disease and to alleviate suffering has underpinned medical practice for centuries, specialized palliative medicine grew out of the modern hospice movement launched in the 1960s by Cicely Saunders, an English nurse, social worker, physician and writer. Though hospices had long served the impoverished terminally ill, Saunders’ establishment in 1967 of St. Christopher’s Hospice in London created a site for expert pain and symptom relief, psychosocial and spiritual care, clinical research and teaching. Hospices based on this model grew quickly across the United Kingdom, the United States and the world.......
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