TEHRAN — Patients suffering from cancer will be provided with palliative care in cancer treatment centers, the head of cancer department affiliated with the Ministry of Health said.

Palliative care is a multidisciplinary approach to specialized medical care for people with life-limiting illnesses. It focuses on providing people with relief from the symptoms, pain, physical stress, and mental stress of the terminal diagnosis.

Palliative care services will expand in two to three years in the country, Ali Motlaq said, ISNA news agency reported on Tuesday.

“Such care services are new approaches offered to the patients therefore coming up with plans to put it into practice was not easy for us,” Motlaq stated.

“We’d have to train general practitioners, nurses, dieticians, and psychiatrist recommended for the course by the universities of medical sciences who will eventually deliver palliative care in 14 cancer centers nationwide,” he explained.

“What we are seeking most is to provide outpatient palliative care to the patients,” he suggested, “We are also trying to provide some of the patients with palliative care at their houses without needing to refer to the hospital.”

According to a report published on Tabnak website on Feb. 17 currently some 450,000 Iranian are suffering from cancer and some 90,000 people are diagnosed with cancer annually.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women as 10,000 women are diagnosed with it annually. Stomach cancer is also the deadliest cancer in the country both among men and women.

MQ/MG