{"id":65391,"date":"2022-04-21T14:35:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T18:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=65391"},"modified":"2022-05-05T11:06:18","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T15:06:18","slug":"cancer-palliative-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/","title":{"rendered":"The History of Palliative Care for Cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is palliative care? Why were doctors so opposed to putting cancer patients into palliative care? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palliative care is designed to provide patients with relief of symptoms and improve their quality of life as opposed to curing the disease. For patients suffering from cancer, palliative care wasn’t even an option until the 1950s. According to Siddhartha Mukherjee, the author of The Emperor of All Maladies<\/em>, many doctors were opposed to the idea of putting cancer patients into palliative care because it felt like surrendering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep reading to learn about the arrival of cancer palliative care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Introducing Palliative Care<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the 1950s, an English physician named Cecily Saunders introduced the idea of palliative medicine <\/em>to cancer treatment: end-of-life care<\/a> designed to preserve comfort and dignity, rather than cure the disease at any cost. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mukherjee says that, despite its name, palliative medicine was more of a social advancement than a medical one. Many doctors had refused to even consider cancer palliative care because it felt like admitting defeat; furthermore, many people fought for the slightest chance that their loved ones could be healed, no matter the cost or the impact on the patient. However, Saunders argued that subjecting patients to painful and nauseating treatments with little hope of curing them did more harm than good<\/strong>\u2014that there came a time when doctors and loved ones should let the patient stop suffering<\/a> and die peacefully. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saunders opened the world\u2019s first modern hospice center in England in 1967. In 1974, the first American hospice opened at Yale-New Haven Hospital. By the early 1980s, hospice centers based on Saunders\u2019s model could be found all over the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Misconceptions About Hospice<\/strong>

The purpose of hospice is to relieve patients\u2019 symptoms and allow them to live out what remains of their lives as comfortably as possible. However, many people aren\u2019t comfortable with the idea of hospice, often because they misunderstand what hospice does or how it works.<\/a> 

Here are a few common misconceptions and truths about hospice care:

– Hospice is only for elderly people. In reality, people of any age can enter into hospice care. <\/strong>
– Hospice must be given on an inpatient basis. In reality, many patients receive hospice care in the comfort of their own homes. <\/strong>
– Once you\u2019re in hospice care, you can\u2019t leave. In reality, patients can decide at any time to go back to the hospital or the emergency room.<\/strong>
– You won\u2019t be able to see your usual doctor. In reality, hospice works with your regular physician to make sure you receive the best possible care. <\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is palliative care? Why were doctors so opposed to putting cancer patients into palliative care? Palliative care is designed to provide patients with relief of symptoms and improve their quality of life as opposed to curing the disease. For patients suffering from cancer, palliative care wasn’t even an option until the 1950s. According to Siddhartha Mukherjee, the author of The Emperor of All Maladies, many doctors were opposed to the idea of putting cancer patients into palliative care because it felt like surrendering. Keep reading to learn about the arrival of cancer palliative care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":37679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,39,160],"tags":[611],"class_list":["post-65391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-history","category-science","tag-the-emperor-of-all-maladies","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nThe History of Palliative Care for Cancer - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When Cecily Saunders introduced the idea of palliative care for cancer in the 1950s, many doctors wouldn't even consider it. Here's why.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The History of Palliative Care for Cancer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Cecily Saunders introduced the idea of palliative care for cancer in the 1950s, many doctors wouldn't even consider it. Here's why.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-21T18:35:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-05-05T15:06:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/national-cancer-institute-DK-4VWK1tw-unsplash.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"427\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"The History of Palliative Care for Cancer\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-21T18:35:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-05T15:06:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/\"},\"wordCount\":445,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/national-cancer-institute-DK-4VWK1tw-unsplash.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Emperor of All Maladies\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Health\",\"History\",\"Science\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/\",\"name\":\"The History of Palliative Care for Cancer - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/national-cancer-institute-DK-4VWK1tw-unsplash.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-21T18:35:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-05T15:06:18+00:00\",\"description\":\"When Cecily Saunders introduced the idea of palliative care for cancer in the 1950s, many doctors wouldn't even consider it. Here's why.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/national-cancer-institute-DK-4VWK1tw-unsplash.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/national-cancer-institute-DK-4VWK1tw-unsplash.jpg\",\"width\":640,\"height\":427},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The History of Palliative Care for Cancer\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World's Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\",\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"caption\":\"Darya Sinusoid\"},\"description\":\"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The History of Palliative Care for Cancer - Shortform Books","description":"When Cecily Saunders introduced the idea of palliative care for cancer in the 1950s, many doctors wouldn't even consider it. Here's why.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The History of Palliative Care for Cancer","og_description":"When Cecily Saunders introduced the idea of palliative care for cancer in the 1950s, many doctors wouldn't even consider it. Here's why.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2022-04-21T18:35:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-05-05T15:06:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":427,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/national-cancer-institute-DK-4VWK1tw-unsplash.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Darya Sinusoid","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Darya Sinusoid","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/"},"author":{"name":"Darya Sinusoid","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46"},"headline":"The History of Palliative Care for Cancer","datePublished":"2022-04-21T18:35:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-05-05T15:06:18+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/"},"wordCount":445,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/national-cancer-institute-DK-4VWK1tw-unsplash.jpg","keywords":["The Emperor of All Maladies"],"articleSection":["Health","History","Science"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/","name":"The History of Palliative Care for Cancer - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/national-cancer-institute-DK-4VWK1tw-unsplash.jpg","datePublished":"2022-04-21T18:35:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-05-05T15:06:18+00:00","description":"When Cecily Saunders introduced the idea of palliative care for cancer in the 1950s, many doctors wouldn't even consider it. Here's why.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/national-cancer-institute-DK-4VWK1tw-unsplash.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/national-cancer-institute-DK-4VWK1tw-unsplash.jpg","width":640,"height":427},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/cancer-palliative-care\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The History of Palliative Care for Cancer"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World's Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46","name":"Darya Sinusoid","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","caption":"Darya Sinusoid"},"description":"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/national-cancer-institute-DK-4VWK1tw-unsplash.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65391"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65949,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65391\/revisions\/65949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}