Living to the end: Merging holistic and evidence-based strategies to meet the needs of people living with advanced cancer.

With advances in the treatment and long-term management of cancer, the number of people living with metastatic and advanced cancers has continued to grow. Yet their issues and concerns, and those of their family caregivers, are often neglected. Despite the paucity of high levels of evidence for best-practice care of this distinct survivor population, we can and must start now to consistently address their needs, changing or adapting practice as new evidence becomes available. This article provides a review of the literature focusing primarily on the needs of patients/caregivers and highlights holistic nursing activities and programmatic services that are suggested by available data.