Commercial and Social Determinants in Palliative Care

All cancer patients benefit from structured palliative care interventions that are patient-centred, as these demonstrate improved care quality, symptom relief and quality of life. Patient-centred palliative care should be provided alongside tumour-centred care (TCC), rather than the sole TCC-focus on cure supported by the pharmaceutical industry. In practice, this is not the case. Commercial determinants are a prohibitive factor for the integration of patient-centred care (PCC) and TCC. The time has come for joint actions by politicians, the medical industry and professional organisations to consolidate palliative care and PCC as essential parts of cancer care, with the aim of improving quality of life.