Palliative care can offer patients with progressive cancer a better quality of life, but how can this type of care be integrated into the care of these patients earlier? Speaking at the 2017 National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Conference in Liverpool, UK, Irene Higginson, OBE, BMBS, PhD, FMedSci, FRCP, of Kings College London, London, UK, discusses strategies that can be implemented to identify the patients most at risk of having progressive cancer, so that palliative can be offered earlier. Prof. Higginson also explains what the palliative care healthcare team do to support cancer patients and offers her personal thoughts on modern palliative care.