Palliative care is intended for any patient with a life-threatening illness, ideally combined with curative care, regardless of age and prognosis. This care does not depend on the prognosis and clinical conditions; it is possible to be provided by the same health team. A desire often expressed by patients in palliative care is to remain physically independent until the end of their lives. Performing daily life tasks and maintaining mobility are areas subject to intervention that result in significant gains in quality of life.

To evaluate the functionality of hospitalized cancer patients under palliative care.

This is a prospective, quantitative, and descriptive study. The functionality of patients hospitalized in the palliative care clinics of Hospital Ophir Loyola, a reference in oncology in Pará, was evaluated. Patients of both genders, aged over 18 years, were included in the study. The sample was defined by convenience, according to the patient's admission to the oncological palliative care clinics of the HOL after a referral from the surgical clinics, who did not have the capacity for curative treatment under conditions of relapses, metastases, and/or advanced stages of the disease. Those who were unconscious or in disorientation that prevented them from answering alone or with the help of the evaluator and those who died during the hospitalization period were excluded. The research was carried out from July to November 2021. The Palliative Performance Scale (PPS) and Visual Analog Pain Scale (EVA) were applied, characterizing the initial assessment T1. Patients received support from the multidisciplinary team. When starting the hospital discharge and return home programming phase, the final assessment (second stage - T2) and reapplication of the scales were performed.

seven volunteers were included in the research, with a prevalence of males (71.4%), adults aged 30 to 59 years (85.7%), married (71.4%), with low education (85.7% with incomplete 1st grade) and primary location of cancer in the digestive tract (42.8%). The volunteers showed an important improvement in palliative performance within the PPS scale, evolving with a median of 50 at T1 to 70 at T2 (p-0.0019), in pain control measured through the VAS scale from 10 to 0 (p-0.0090).

With this study, it was possible to trace the clinical profile of cancer patients in Palliative Care and attest that a clinic specialized in palliative care manages to control symptoms, reflected in the improvement of pain, palliative performance, demonstrating that specialized palliative care clinics present efficiency in this management.