Supportive care, also called Palliative care, is aimed at relieving suffering and improving quality of life. It is designed to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family. It provides patients of any age or disease stage with relief from symptoms, pain, and stress, and should be provided along with curative treatment. Earlier, the term palliative care was primarily used to describe the act of promoting comfort when aggressive treatment was no longer working i.e. the care given at the end of life. It has long been recognized as an essential part of cancer treatment. But more recently, it's receiving much more attention and study. It has grown into a specialized field of knowledge as well as being a standard part of care given by doctors and cancer care teams.

Supportive care may also increase survival rate. A 2010 study of lung cancer looked at patients who were given palliative care alongside cancer treatment. The patients who received palliative care along with cancer treatment lived nearly 3 months longer than the patients who received the cancer treatment without the palliative care.