Palliative treatment is care for and control of your symptoms, rather than the treatment of the disease itself. It may include palliative chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery.

Some patients are too ill to cope with these powerful treatments, or the cancer is not responding to them. In this case, palliative care (sometimes called supportive care) aims to give good pain and symptom control by other means.

If you have fluid collecting around your lungs or abdomen, you may be given treatment to drain the fluid off. One way is to use a pleural tap (thoracocentesis). Following this procedure, the space is often sealed with a sterile talc, to stop the fluid filling the lung again. This is called pleurodesis. Fluid can be drained from the abdomen with an ascitic tap (abdominal paracentesis).

Supportive care includes care for your emotional and spiritual wellbeing. It involves and supports your family and carers too. In its widest sense, supportive care starts with the first tests that you have, and is the concern of all the healthcare professionals that you meet throughout your treatment.

Supportive care aims to help you to live well and have the best possible quality of life, even if your cancer can’t be cured. If this is the case, you may receive specialist palliative care in hospital, at home, in a care-home or in a hospice. The pattern of your care will be decided by you and the multidisciplinary team which has looked after you so far, including your GP.

You may be cared for by a hospital-based palliative care team or a ‘hospice at home’ team. Additional palliative care may be given by a Macmillan nurse, your community palliative care team, Marie Curie nurses or your local hospice.

You should be offered clear information and support in an open and sensitive way.