It focuses upon physical and psychological comfort and upon maximizing function during the life that remains.
Palliative care can be extremely helpful during any incurable disease.
People who receive good palliative care can obtain partial or complete relief of symptoms such as pain, breathlessness, or nausea. Appropriate palliative care eases stress and often eliminates the desire some terminally ill people have to commit suicide. Not every terminally ill patient has pain, and few experience an entire array of bad symptoms. Most dying people do not experience severe pain at the end of life unless painful treatments are given. Many people with AIDS or cancer, but by no means all, experience pain.