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Brian Vastag

JAMA. 2001;286:778-779.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Washington—Saying that more patients deserve appropriate palliative care for pain, nausea, fatigue, and other debilitating symptoms, the National Cancer Policy Board is asking the federal government to lead the medical community toward a place where physicians and patients do not have to choose between "treatments with curative intents or comfort care."

Too often, cancer research and treatment focus exclusively on trying to cure patients, with little attention paid to improving quality of life, according to Improving Palliative Care for Cancer, a report prepared by the board under the auspices of the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council (available online at http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10149.html).

At a press conference announcing the report, which the board wants to stimulate a broad public discussion of better distress relief, the authors reeled off a litany of oversights: just 1% of the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) $3 billion annual budget goes . . . [Full Text of this Article]