There is now substantial evidence that the early provision of supportive and palliative care integrated with oncological care for cancer patients improves quality of life, symptom management and life expectancy. The role of the oncologist is to consider the impact of the disease and treatment on each patient’s life while delivering the best quality anticancer treatment. This requires the development of skills in supportive and palliative care, the adoption of a fully integrated, multidisciplinary model of working and a philosophy of care whereby the focus is on the integration of patient- and cancer-directed interventions. In the ever-changing landscape of anticancer treatments, the ESMO Handbook of Supportive and Palliative Care describes how to effectively communicate with cancer patients, to detect and address their unique unmet needs and to provide state-of-the-art holistic care to those living with and beyond cancer.
