End-of-life care is care occurring in the last part of a patient’s life, typically in the last few months, depending on the underlying diagnosis and clinical course and also includes planning for end-of-life care. Palliative care includes end-of-life care, but also entails much more.
Palliative care is care that focuses on improving the quality of life and quality of care for patients with life-threatening or life-limiting illness and their families through the prevention and relief of suffering, communication about goals of care, and early identification and assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual.