When should palliative care be offered to cancer patients?

In recent years, there has been a lot of debate surrounding how palliative care should be integrated into the cancer care pathway; one question is how early should palliative care be offered? In this interview, Irene Higginson, OBE, BMBS, PhD, FMedSci, FRCP, of King’s College London, London, UK, discusses the evidence showing that patients with progressive cancer, as well as their families, benefit more from receiving palliative care in the early stages of cancer. Prof. Higginson also explains her findings on the economics of offering early palliative care. This interview was held at the 2017 National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Conference in Liverpool, UK.