Palliative care for people with COPD: effective but underused

Nearly 100 000 men and over 65 000 women die from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Europe each year [1]; more die from one of its comorbidities but face the challenges of living and dying with severe COPD during their last years and months. Globally, COPD is the third most common cause of death worldwide and the Global Burden of Disease project estimated that, in 2015, COPD caused 3.2 million deaths, an increase of 11.6% compared with 1990 [2]. Despite its effectiveness palliative care is underused in the majority of patients with COPD <http://ow.ly/d0YH30hPKeu>