“We need to fund more research in palliative care options. We need to make training in palliative care a priority for our health care providers.”

Joseph, 42, professor

Billions of dollars are spent in understanding why cancer happens and in finding cures and treatments. But little money has been put into research to help take care of the physical and emotional pain—and other symptoms—that people have living with and dying from cancer. This research would greatly benefit people who suffer from cancer. But it would also benefit everyone who has any serious illness or is dying. The cancer research community can lead the way.

The medical community now has new ways to understand the symptoms people experience. For example, now we can take images of the brain. This can help us study pain and depression. We can see how treatment helps. Many more new treatments could be developed. These treatments could give us better control of most of the symptoms people with cancer have. To do this, the government must give the needed funding.

Among many other issues, we need to advocate for more research in:

• How to communicate better with patients who are dying, as well as with their families.
• New ways to control the symptoms of the late stages of cancer and the side effects of cancer treatments.
• How to deal with the emotional, social, and financial issues facing families.

In addition, more dollars need to be spent developing and providing the education and training programs health care providers need in order to give good palliative care to all their patients.