Palliative care

Palliative care is relevant to anyone affected by lymphoma, including family and friends who are caring for someone with lymphoma. It can help to improve your quality of life, including by helping to manage lymphoma symptoms and treatment side effects. Your medical team or GP can tell you about palliative care options.

This information covers palliative care from the point of diagnosis. It also covers palliative care for people who are coming towards the end of life – we have separate information about lymphoma and the end of life.

Our Helpline Team are here to support you if you would like to talk about any aspect of lymphoma, including about how you’re feeling.

On this page

What is palliative care?

Who can access palliative care?

Who provides palliative care?

Palliative care at the end of life

Frequently asked questions about lymphoma and palliative care

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What is palliative care?

Palliative care can be used alongside active lymphoma treatment.

Some people think that palliative care only applies to people who are coming towards the end of life. However, in reality, you should be offered palliative care from diagnosis, throughout your treatment and during follow-up. 

Palliative care aims to improve your overall wellbeing and support you to live your life feeling as well as possible. Even if your lymphoma is manageable in the long term, palliative care services are still available to you.

It is your right to choose whether you’d like palliative care and, if so, which types. Many people choose to have some form of palliative care – for example, to relieve pain.

Understanding how to improve quality of life is an increasingly important aspect of cancer service delivery, underpinned by person-centred care that acknowledges the complexity and diversity of the individual patient’s needs. 

Department of Health and Social Care, 2023

The palliative care you have depends on your individual needs and wishes. A holistic needs assessment (HNA) can help to identify these. The care you’re offered also depends on the services available in your local area. The palliative care you are offered should suit your individual needs. It can therefore mean different things to different people.

Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients (adults and children) and their families who are facing problems associated with life-threatening illness. It prevents and relieves suffering through the early identification, correct assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, whether physical, psychosocial or spiritual.

World Health Organization

You might also hear about enhanced supportive care. This is an approach to help prevent and manage the physical and psychological effects of cancer and its treatment. Find out about enhanced supportive care and its role within the holistic management of lymphoma in our podcast with Palliative Care Consultant, Dr Dan Monnery.

Enhanced supportive care services have a key role in modern cancer care in maintaining and improving patients' quality of life alongside cancer treatment and ensuring that patients' priorities and preferences for treatment are considered.

Dr Dan Monnery, Consultant in Palliative Medicine

Below, we outline some of the ways that palliative care can support you in relation to:

• physical wellbeing
• practical support
• overall wellbeing.

Physical wellbeing

Palliative care for physical wellbeing can include:

• pain relief
• symptom control
• managing side effects of lymphoma treatments
• supporting you to keep your independence, for example, through physiotherapy or occupational therapy.

Practical support

Palliative care to offer practical support can include helping you with: 

• accessing advice and support to manage your finances
• arranging social support or care services
• getting a referral to occupational therapy services to assess your home and make recommendations to help you – such as for a stair rail to be fitted
• getting a referral for hospice care.

Overall wellbeing

Palliative care for overall wellbeing can help you in:

• accessing complementary therapies – for example massage, aromatherapy and art and other creative therapies to bring relaxation, lessen pain and reduce low mood and anxiety
• supporting you to make sense of your experiences – for example, through counselling or another talking therapy
• considering your beliefs and values – for some people, this includes in relation to a religious or spiritual faith. 

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Who can access palliative care?

Everyone who is affected by cancer has a right to high quality palliative care.

Your medical team should speak to you about how palliative care could support you in any needs that you have. If you haven’t been offered palliative care, or there are other forms of support you’d like, talk to them about it.

Support for family and friends

Support is available to the people who care for you, including family and friends. This could be, for example, to help with the emotional impact of lymphoma or accessing practical support. A GP or other health professional can help loved ones to access appropriate services.

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Who provides palliative care?

Lots of different professionals offer palliative care, as we outline in this section. Your medical team can help you to get the help and support you would like. Your GP can often offer advice to you and refer you to other services.

General palliative care

General palliative care is provided by healthcare professionals who are part of your medical team. Many people have this type of care as an outpatient. For example, you might have steroids or low dose chemotherapy to help ease lymphoma symptoms. Sometimes, people have palliative radiotherapy, where treatment is given to a particular area where the lymphoma is causing discomfort.

Many hospitals also offer specialist palliative care. If your local hospital doesn’t offer the support you need, you might be referred to a hospice or a community palliative care service to receive palliative care at home. 

District nurses

You might have support from district nurses, who visit you in your home. The Queen’s Institute of Community Nursing outlines the role as ‘senior nurses in the NHS who manage care within the community’.

District nurses work with other people involved with your care to support you and the people who care for you at home.

They might:

• help you with any symptoms and health concerns
• prescribe medication
• help you with taking medications
• change dressings
• take care of urinary catheters (soft tubes put into the bladder to drain urine)
• assess your needs for help at home, such as for mobility and independent living aids or specialist beds
• give guidance on applying for grants and welfare support
• refer you to other organisations. 

Specialist palliative care

This type of care is provided by professionals who specialise in palliative care (palliative care doctors and nurses). Specialist care is provided through:

• hospital palliative care teams
• hospice staff
• palliative care nurses.

Hospital specialist palliative care teams

Many hospitals have specialist palliative care teams. These are made up of professionals including specialist palliative care consultants and clinical nurse specialists in palliative care. Depending on your needs, you might also have access to other professionals such as a physiotherapist, occupational therapists, chaplain or counsellor.

You might have short periods of time in hospital. For example, if you have an infection, to help with symptom control or managing emotional difficulties.

Hospice staff

Hospices provide a gentle and calm setting. They offer a range of support for people with an illness that cannot be cured, and to their family and friends. 

Hospice services often include complementary therapies, art and other creative therapies, counselling, support groups and religious or faith-based support. 

Usually, a hospice is allocated to you. However, teenagers and young adults might be given an option between their local adult hospice or their local children’s hospice. Sometimes, it’s possible for them to access support through both.

Hospices also provide specialist care towards the end of life. Often this care is provided at home. However, some people are cared for in a hospice – this could be by visiting the hospice, or as an inpatient.

If it becomes difficult for you to do things at home, your medical team might suggest a short stay in a hospice. Some people fear this means they will not return home. However, many people stay for just a few days. The average length of stay in a hospice in the UK is around 2 weeks before the person goes home.

You can find out more about hospices on the Hospice UK website. This also has a search tool to help you find a hospice near you. There is also information about hospice care on the NHS website.

Palliative care nurses

Palliative care nurses specialise in palliative care or cancer nursing. They have additional qualifications, for example in pain and symptom management. They can also provide emotional support. 

Macmillan nurses offer information and support to people with cancer, their family and friends. They can help with symptom management and side effects, offer emotional support and tell you about any support groups you might be interested in. They can also give information about services available to help with things like financial support. 

Some clinical nurse specialists do the same role but are not funded by Macmillan Cancer Support. You can find out more about Macmillan nurses on the Macmillan Cancer Support website. This also gives information about how to access one.

Marie Curie nurses provide care for people with terminal illness in their homes. They describe this as ‘hospice care at home’. A Marie Curie nurse can assess and take care of needs such as by giving advice and medications. You might also have a Marie Curie Healthcare Assistant, who can help with day-to-day tasks such as washing and dressing you. Marie Curie nurses work in partnership with the NHS and are funded by both organisations (Marie Curie and NHS). They also support carers (family members and friends) of the person who is unwell. You can find out more about the role of a Marie Curie nurse and how to access one on the Marie Curie website.

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Palliative care at the end of life

The aim of palliative care at the end of life is to make your final days as comfortable as possible, so that you can live and die with dignity.

People are considered to be nearing the end of their life if doctors expect that they are likely to die within the next 12 months. 

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) say that palliative care should be holistic. This means that it should address any physical, practical, psychological, spiritual and social needs you have. Your care plan should be suited to your specific needs and continue into the last days of your life.

You might also be interested in our separate information about lymphoma and the end of life. This includes about advance care planning – decisions about treatments and care you would or wouldn’t want to have in the future. 

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Frequently asked questions about lymphoma and palliative care

Speak to your GP or a member of your medical team about your palliative care needs and requests. They can support you to get the help that best suits you.

When can I access palliative care?

Palliative care should be available to you, and those close to you, from the point of your diagnosis onwards. Some people have palliative care throughout treatment, while other people have appointments to address their needs as and when appropriate.

Who pays for palliative care?

If you receive palliative care in your home, in hospital or in a hospice, you do not have to pay for it. 

You might need to pay for social care provided by social services. In some cases, the NHS might pay some of the charges for you as part of the NHS continuing healthcare scheme.

If you are not eligible for NHS funding, you might qualify for a contribution towards the costs from another organisation, such as a charity. Macmillan Cancer Support have money advisors who can talk to you about sources of financial support that are available to you.