palliation
Meaning of palliation: Palliation is care focused on relieving symptoms and improving comfort in serious illness, distinct from treatment aimed at curing the underlying disease.
Definition of palliation
Palliation refers to medical care focused on relieving symptoms and improving comfort and quality of life for a person with a serious or life limiting illness, rather than on curing the underlying disease.
Palliation can address pain, nausea, breathlessness, fatigue, and other distressing symptoms arising from a wide range of conditions, including cancer, advanced heart failure, chronic lung disease, and progressive neurological disorders. It can be provided alongside treatments aimed at the disease itself or, later in an illness, as the main focus of care.
Because palliation targets symptoms rather than the disease process itself, it can be appropriate at any stage of a serious illness, not only when curative treatment is no longer being pursued, and it is generally delivered by a team that may include physicians, nurses, and other specialists focused on comfort and support.
Used in a sentence
Palliation of the patient's pain and nausea was prioritized alongside ongoing cancer treatment.
Good to know
Palliation is sometimes assumed to apply only once curative treatment has ended, though it can be provided at any point during a serious illness alongside treatment directed at the disease itself.
Word origin
Where “palliation” comes from
Formed from Latin palliare, meaning to cloak or cover, from pallium, meaning cloak.