Care of the adult cancer patient at the end of life: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines

Abstract

In palliative care (PC), the term ‘end of life’ (EoL) is commonly used but inconsistently defined.1 This European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) refers to EoL as care for people with advanced disease once they have reached a point of rapid physical decline, typically the last few weeks or months before an inevitable death as a natural result of a disease. This guideline will only consider the last weeks and days of life for the adult patient with advanced cancer.