Current status of palliative care in Turkey.

Patients with cancer are still suffering a lot, especially those in developing countries. The concept of palliative care has improved and disseminated slowly in Turkey since the early 1990's. It is essential that improved palliative care program should be integrated into national health-care systems to control this suffering. In this review the history of the development of palliative care, opioid availability and some ethical issues in Turkey are reported.