What is so confusing about the term `palliative`?

In palliative and end of life care, numerous terms can be found that might be understood in different ways by the patient, his/her relatives, doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals. Unfortunately, even commonly used and prognostically highly relevant terms such as palliative, curative, or supportive, bear numerous opportunities for severe misunderstanding. This is even more true for medical specialties that care for chronically (and therefore ´incurably´) affected patients, like in nephrology. This contribution analyses the respective palliative care definitions, their differences and discrepancies, and describes an `early integrative` and needs-oriented palliative care approach that may help to overcome prognostic uncertainties that not seldomly prevent comprehensive support for severely affected patients.