Palliative vs. curative treatment
Curative treatment is given with the intent of eliminating the cancer completely. Palliative treatment aims to relieve symptoms — pain, breathlessness, and others — and improve quality of life; it can be given alongside curative treatment from the point of diagnosis, not only when curative options have been exhausted. A treatment plan can be, and often is, both: pursuing a cure while also actively managing symptoms along the way.