Transition from Curative to Palliative Care in Cancer

The crisis of living with an incurable illness can be lessened for patients (and the family members) with greater understanding of the needs for change in treatment goals and care.[3,4,19,20] Communication about prognosis and transition in the goals of medical care should be a part of the overall oncologic care plan.[2] For patients who fail to respond to the primary CDT, second-line treatments, in the form of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery, have been explored with limited benefits. It is often seen that medical interventions in the face of a progressive and unresponsive disease add to the costs of manpower, infrastructure and budgetary provisions for any country. Doctors have an onus to reduce the burdens of financial expenses on the patients and healthcare system. The medical community should endeavor to implement resource-level-appropriate palliative care programs within the existing health systems. [4,17,18] In the developing countries of Asia and Africa, there is a need to identify the patients who will require the transition from curative to palliative care approaches. The benefits of palliative and supportive care for a cancer patient have shown good scientific foundations, and such approaches can be implemented for other terminal patients of HIV, neurology, cardiology, and geriatrics. This will avoid unnecessary healthcare costs and distress for the patient and family.