Get a head start on living better with breast cancer
What you need to know about palliative care
- 05/15/26
Palliative care is often misunderstood as end-of-life care. In reality, it can provide support any time during serious illness, helping people manage pain and other symptoms, cope with uncertainty, and improve quality of life.
When you’re living with breast cancer, some terms can feel heavy before anyone explains what they mean.
“Palliative care” is one of them.
Many people hear it and think of hospice, dying, or stopping treatment. For people living with metastatic breast cancer, it can feel like a signal that something is wrong or that their care team is giving up.
Those associations are common, but they don’t tell the full story. Palliative care is not about giving up or end of life. It’s support that can begin any time during serious illness and help you live better.
Oncologist Don S. Dizon, MD, FACP, FASCO, describes palliative care in a blog post as supportive care that helps with the distress, fear, and uncertainty that come with living with cancer, not just care at the end of life.
Speaking at the 2024 Thriving Together: Conference on Metastatic Breast Cancer, palliative care physician Kimberly A. Curseen, MD, put it simply, “Palliative care is not here to help you die. It’s here to help you live.”
“There’s never a bad time for palliative care if you’re dealing with serious illness,” says Pallavi Kumar, MDs MPH, section chief of oncology palliative care at Penn Medicine, in her keynote presentation from the 2026 Conference on Metastatic Breast Cancer.
Understanding how palliative care and hospice differ can make it easier to ask for support. Not just later, but now.
1. Palliative care can start at any stage of breast cancer.
Palliative care is specialized medical care for people living with serious illness.
It focuses on:
- Relieving symptoms like pain, fatigue, or nausea
- Reducing stress
- Improving quality of life for both you and your caregivers
It can be provided at any stage, including while you are actively receiving treatment.
“It’s appropriate at any stage of illness and can be provided with curative treatment,” Dr. Curseen explained at the 2024 conference.
You don’t have to wait for things to get worse to benefit from this kind of support.
2. Hospice is one type of palliative care, but palliative care and hospice are not the same thing.
Palliative care is a broad type of supportive care, while hospice is one way that supportive care is delivered. This subset of supportive care is usually started when treatment is no longer helping, or the focus shifts fully to comfort.
Dr. Curseen describes palliative care as an umbrella, with hospice as one part of it. That means being referred to palliative care does not mean you are entering hospice.
3. Palliative care works alongside your oncology team.
Palliative care adds support. It doesn’t replace your doctors. As Dr. Kumar puts it, “Supportive care should be a team effort.”
Your palliative care team may include:
- Doctors and nurses
- Social workers
- Spiritual care providers
- Other specialists
Together, they focus on you as a whole person, not just your diagnosis. Your palliative care provider will be in frequent contact with your oncology team to ensure they are collaborating in the best way to support you.
Dr. Curseen describes this team as helping bridge communication gaps and making sure concerns don’t “fall through the cracks,” especially when care feels overwhelming.
4. It’s about having support, not just about being “strong.”
You may hear messages like “stay strong” or “be resilient.” But resilience doesn’t happen alone.
“To be resilient, you actually need support and help,” Dr. Curseen said in her 2024 keynote.
Palliative care recognizes that:
- Serious illness affects your body, mind, and daily life.
- Support often needs to come from outside yourself.
- You shouldn’t have to manage everything on your own.
It’s not about pushing through — it’s about being supported through.
5. Palliative care helps you live better now.
Palliative care is about more than managing severe symptoms. It’s about improving your quality of life day to day, which might include care practices that help with:
- Managing side effects
- Improving sleep or energy
- Supporting emotional health
- Helping you stay connected to what matters most to you
“It’s not just to help you survive,” Dr. Curseen says. “It’s to help you figure out a way to thrive.”
6. Asking for palliative care is not giving up.
This is one of the most common concerns and one of the biggest misconceptions.
Palliative care does not mean you are giving up.
In one example shared by Dr. Dizon, a patient’s husband responded to the idea of palliative care by saying: “Life has got to be more than crying yourself to sleep each night.”
When it’s framed as support for coping, not as end-of-life care, it can feel very different.
“Asking for palliative care is not giving up,” Dr. Curseen says. “You’re asking for the support you need to go through your journey.”
7. Getting support earlier can make a real difference.
Many people are introduced to palliative care later than they might benefit from it.
Earlier support can help you manage symptoms sooner. It can also reduce stress and make treatment feel more manageable.
Experts recommend access to palliative care for people with advanced cancer, yet misconceptions about palliative care still delay referrals.
Reframing it as support rather than a last step can help more people benefit from it earlier.
8. Hospice provides support when treatment goals shift to comfort.
Hospice care is designed for when treatment is no longer helping or when goals shift fully to comfort.
Hospice offers:
- Coordinated medical care
- Symptom management
- Emotional and practical support
- Resources for both you and your loved ones
While the word can feel difficult, hospice is ultimately about ensuring comfort, dignity, and support during a challenging time.
9. If your cancer center doesn’t have dedicated palliative care, you still have options.
While most U.S. hospitals have inpatient palliative care available, Dr. Kumar said most health plans also cover palliative care as outpatient services. Her clinic also relies on telehealth visits to support patients who don’t have the time, funds, or energy to attend another doctor’s visit.
If these options are not available, you can rely on other providers for similar care. You might request a separate appointment with your advanced practice provider, like a nurse practitioner or physician assistant at the practice, to talk only about how to manage your symptoms. Often, they can provide that support directly or refer you to a specialist for more complex issues.
Dr. Kumar also suggests keeping a diary of events or activities that are important to you, so that your oncology team can support you with ways to fit your treatment around your life. The team may call on social workers, pharmacists, or other allied health professionals to help you navigate supports.
You can also rank your symptoms in order of importance to you, or how many good days versus bad days you’ve had in a certain time period. This helps your care team to prioritize supportive care and determine how to best help you.
Why all of this matters
Palliative care and hospice are connected, but they serve different roles. Both are rooted in the same objective: support.
As Dr. Dizon suggests, it may be time to rethink the meaning of palliative care, not as “the end,” but as help carrying what cancer asks you to carry.
Stay connected
Sign up to receive emotional support, medical insight, personal stories, and more, delivered to your inbox weekly.
- Former LBBC digital media specialist, writer, and web content coordinator
- Founded LBBC’s Twitter chats in 2014
Reviewed by: LBBC Staff
Tagged:
Living Beyond Breast Cancer is a national nonprofit organization that seeks to create a world that understands there is more than one way to have breast cancer. To fulfill its mission of providing trusted information and a community of support to those impacted by the disease, Living Beyond Breast Cancer offers on-demand emotional, practical, and evidence-based content. For over 30 years, the organization has remained committed to creating a culture of acceptance — where sharing the diversity of the lived experience of breast cancer fosters self-advocacy and hope. For more information, learn more about our programs and services.