[Palliative care is more than palliative antitumour treatment and symptom management]

Nowadays, many palliative treatments are available for advanced cancer. These treatments provide relief of symptoms and add months to life, but their price is high, both literally and figuratively. Patients seize on any opportunity to be treated and oncologists find it hard to stop treatment because this means talking and reflecting about dying. This 'conspiracy of silence' makes it hard to say 'we don't have any further treatment'. Instead of saying 'we have no further treatment', patients should be offered palliative care as a positive choice to achieve the best quality of life, not only with physical but also with psychological, social and spiritual support.