palliative therapy

palliative therapy

Palliative treatment Medtalk Any treatment of a terminally ill Pt intended to alleviate pain and suffering, without performing aggressive–'heroic' procedures; PT does not alter course of disease, but improves the quality of life before death through various modalities–eg, surgery and RT, to ↓ tumor masses compressing vital structures. See 'Band-aid' therapy, Karnovsky scale; 'Heroic' therapy.