They should receive the best care possible, including palliative treatment, a dimension of terminal care that is often scandalously neglected: and this in turn will require, in America, a proper effort to extend health coverage to the uninsured.

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The claims have highlighted cases in which families have said their children have received palliative care - treatment to relieve pain but not cure, which is often given to terminally ill patients - when they believed they could have recovered.

BBC: England

When malignant, islet cell cancers do not generally respond well to chemotherapy, and the treatment is mainly palliative.

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Their letter says the new treatment pattern of palliative care, based on experience at a Liverpool hospice is being rolled out into hospitals and nursing homes.

BBC: 'Crisis' over terminally-ill care

Instead, treatment is supposed to be limited to palliative care, which is aimed at relieving pain, symptoms or stress of terminal illness (including a comprehensive set of medical, social, psychological, emotional and spiritual services).

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