A new study has unveiled that offering palliative care to those who are suffering from critical diseases might be beneficial in enhancing the quality of their lives. With this, the patients may be able to live a little longer.

A study that entailed 151 patients, whose lung cancer was at an advanced stage were provided palliative care. It was seen that they lived for 11.6 months, roughly three months more than those who received the normal medical care, revealed Thursday's edition of New England Journal of Medicine.

It is observed that even chemotherapy is able to add two to three months of life to lung cancer patients, when they are detected with the disease.

Co-author Dr. Thomas Lynch, Director of the Yale Cancer Center said that palliative care involves alleviating the symptoms. It aims at assisting people to utilize the rest of their time in a most efficient way, and it is effective just like any other drug in enhancing the chances of survival.

Dr. Jennifer Temel, a lung cancer specialist at Mass. General and lead author of the study said, "I see the suffering day in and day out. I never understood why we only asked palliative care clinicians to see patients toward the end of their life. It's too late then''.