Changing emphasis in end-of-life care

Abstract

This month's journal contains a symposium on palliative medicine without any sections relating directly to cancer. This may be surprising for those who still understand palliative medicine as an oncological offshoot. The need for the adoption of the palliative care approach beyond the confines of oncology has long been recognized. Four years before the opening of the first modern hospice at St Christopher's in Sydenham, John Hinton (1963) demonstrated that the morbidity of patients with non-malignant conditions was as great or greater than those with cancer (National Council for Palliative Care, 2007).