Abstract: Palliative cancer care is the integration into cancer care of therapies to address the multiple issues that cause suffering for patients and their families and have an impact on the quality of their lives. Palliative cancer care aims to give patients and their families the capacity to realize their full potential, when their cancer is curable as well as when the end of life is near. Toward the end of life, specifically in with a terminal diagnosis, when curative therapies are no longer being pursued, family and caregivers may experience tensions as the shift happens in accepting the terminality of a disease. By potentially improving the quality of life, the overall cost of care is reduced by eliminating frequent hospital and emergency room visits, and even a slight increase in survival rates of patients with metastatic cancer, palliative care has an increased relevance in the healthcare system. The introduction of community based palliative care could play a key role in providing this essential form of healthcare for the aging population, as the numbers increase of people who not only have cancer, but are also living with long term chronic illness.