Supportive Care

Research related to supportive care focuses on the development, evaluation and implementation of interventions and programs for patients with cancer in order to optimize the patient’s quality of life.

Supportive Care treats the whole person, not just the cancer

About this Theme

Our research includes the whole continuum of care: from cancer diagnosis, followed by the therapeutic phase, to post-treatment care. Research topics range from optimizing cancer treatment tolerability and alleviating long-term symptoms in cancer survivors, to providing the best care during the last phase of life.

Additionally, our research on supportive care focuses on identifying those patients most in need of such interventions, and on strategies to monitor symptoms, functioning, quality of life and how to optimize palliative care. Together, these efforts aim at providing the best Supportive Care to each patient and their relatives throughout the cancer trajectory, with innovative services tailored to meet every patient’s individual needs.

Key Strengths

As more patients live longer with the consequences of their disease and/or treatment, the prevention and treatment of symptoms and side-effects is an essential part of cancer care. This also applies to monitoring and improving patients’ physical, psychological, social, and spiritual problems related to cancer and cancer treatment. Supportive Care aims to strengthen the quality of life through all phases of the cancer trajectory, as without quality of life, surviving cancer or living with cancer has no meaning.

Research Lines

The Supportive Care theme include research on psychological support, cancer survival, effects of physical activity, improvement of nutrition, early detection of symptoms, advance care planning, and the organization of palliative care and decisions at the end of life.