There is a great need of clinical and basic research in palliative care. For the treatment of many symptoms there is a lack of evidence on how to treat patients in a palliative setting. Often one have to extrapolate data from non palliative cohorts, which is not a recommendable strategy.
Research in palliative care is in general still in its infancy with lack of skilled clinicians in research, and a minimum of resources and therefore palliative care researchers are often put into an inferior position with regard to compete with other specialists with decades of research tradition.
In modern clinical research there is a great need of collaboration between basic scientists (physiology, pharmacology, molecular biology, etc) and clinicians. By means of sound leadership and long term strategy planning combined with collaboration between research experts, palliative care research can also be compatible. However, in order to reach this level basic ear-marked fundings are needed for palliative care, a national research strategy and a systematic training in research in the post-graduate programs within palliative care.