Palliative and Supportive Care of Patients with Intracranial Glioma

Clinicians dealing with patients affected by malignant brain tumors are frequently involved in providing palliative and supportive care, particularly at the end of life. It requires a multidisciplinary approach by a well-trained specialized neuro-oncology team. Early initiation of palliative care integrated with standard anticancer therapy may be effective for symptom management and results in improvement of the quality of life. However, studies specifically addressing these issues are very limited, thus do not allow the creation of any reliable evidence-based guidelines. Therefore, there is a definite need for improvement in the quality of palliative and supportive care in neuro-oncology and for specific education for its providers.