**1. Introduction**

Palliative care is a philosophy based approach in patient care not on physical facilities but on attitudes and skills [1] and is redefined by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2002 and extended to include palliative care for children for the active total care of patients facing life-threatening illness through prevention and relief of sufferings by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems as physical, psychosocial and spiritual, with an aim to improve the quality of life of the patient and their families [2, 3]. Most of the developed and developing countries recognized palliative medicine for the improvement

of the quality of life of patients with chronic disease such as malignancy [4]. The primary goal of palliative care is the achievement of the best possible quality of life for the patients and their families and role extends to support on bereavement, if necessary. The term 'care' underpinned by the concept of total pain, defined as including not only physical symptoms but also mental distress and social or spiritual problems [5]. This concept of palliative care points to the need of holistic approach including symptom control for the management of the patients with terminal illness. Based on the above definition by WHO, the primary aim of palliative medicine is to prevent, treat the symptoms of patients with non-curable diseases as total care and to improve the quality of life (QoL) of the patient and their families.

The evaluation of QoL of patients in Palliative Care is an important procedure in the identification of a patient's overall condition as well as in the evaluation of the quality of service provided [6]. In patient's perspective, the following aspects such as physical abilities, personal autonomy, emotional state, socializing, spirituality, cognition, health care provision and preparation for death are important factors of quality of life in people with a life-limiting illness receiving palliative care [7] and to be considered during the assessment of quality of life in these patient cohort. The occurrence of incurable diseases can cause an enormous challenge to the patient, their family as well as medical professionals, affecting the QoL of patients in many ways [8]. With key components of systematic symptom assessment, pain control and other symptom relief, psychosocial support and family support, it is evident that early interdisciplinary palliative care and care givers' support help the patient to achieve effective symptom control and better quality in life [9]. However, usual practice to seek palliative care service is still limited to the terminal phase of illness. A coherent and empathetic communication of health professionals with the patient and their family has a major role in adopting patients' and their families' readiness for palliative care at the time of or shortly after diagnosis of incurable life-threatening illness [10–14]. In this context, this chapter highlights the facts with the primary objectives of:

