Definitionen der Palliativmedizin (S. XIII-XIV)

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Palliativmedizin
Palliativmedizin ist die Behandlung von Patienten mit einer nicht heil baren, progredienten und weit fortgeschrittenen Tumorerkrankung und begrenzter Lebenserwartung, für die das Hauptziel der Begleitung die Lebensqualität ist.

European Association of Palliative Care (EAPC) 1998
Palliative care is the active, total care of the patients whose disease is not responsive to curative treatment. Control of pain, of other symptoms, and of social, psychological and spiritual problems is paramount. Palliative care is interdisciplinary in its approach and encompasses the patient, the family and the community in its scope. In a sense, palliative care is to offer the most basic concept of care – that of providing for the needs of the patient wherever he or she is cared for, either at home or in the hospital. Palliative care affirms life and regards dying as a normal process, it neither hastens nor postpones death. It sets out to preserve the best possible quality of life until death.

World Health Organisation 2002
Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual. Palliative care: ,

-  ,provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms,
- affirms life and regards dying as a normal process,
- intends neither to hasten or postpone death,
- integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care,
- offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death,
- offers a support system to help the family cope during the patients illness and in their own bereavement,
- uses a team approach to address the needs of patients and their families, including bereavement counselling, if indicated,
- will enhance quality of life, and may also positively influence the course of illness,
- is applicable early in the course of illness, in conjunction with other therapies that are intended to prolong life, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy, and includes those investigations needed to better understand and manage distressing clinical complications.