The patient with cancer nearing the end of life may have a number of symptoms that can reduce quality of life. By planning ahead with the patient and family, a combination of physical and psychological interventions can be initiated by the GP to alleviate some of these. Those commonly encountered, and discussed in this article by Rod MacLeod, are fatigue, nausea and vomiting, dyspnoea and cough, hypercalcaemia, haemorrhage, superior vena cava obstruction and spinal cord compression
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