Integration between oncology and palliative care: a plan for the next decade?

With the groundbreaking work of three Milan professors—Bonadonna, Veronesi, and Ventafridda—in the 1980s as the starting point, this article aims to shed light on the potential benefits of a closer and more formal integration between oncology and palliative care. More specifically, we address why integration is needed, how to do it, and the potential benefits to the patients, families, and society. The costs for cancer care are increasing rapidly. Especially during the last year of life, some treatments are futile and expensive without proven benefit for patients in terms of prolonged survival with adequate quality of life (QoL). The latest WHO definition of palliative care supports an upstream introduction of palliative care. More recent studies indicate that such an early integration has the potential to improve the patients’ QoL and reduce their symptom burden. Successful integration presupposes formal structures and explicit obligations on how and when to integrate. The Norwegian model for palliative ...