BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Adequate nutritional intervention promotes wellbeing, symptoms control and improved quality of life for patients and their families. This study aimed at evaluating whether nutrition may or may not improve quality of life of patients under palliative care. CONTENTS: This is an integrative review using Pubmed, Scielo and Medline databases. Guiding question was: "Is nutritional therapy able to improve quality of life of patients under palliative care?" Six articles met pre-established inclusion criteria. Nutritionists were professionals most orienting nutritional therapy, in addition to explaining nutritional strategies to minimize diet-related discomforts. Adequate therapy should respect dietary and cultural preferences, thus assuring better quality of life. CONCLUSION: Nutritional approach during palliative care should respect patients and their families' decisions and bioethics principles. Nutritional interventions should give more importance to counseling and support, instead of focusing just on matching nutritional needs. Nutritionists should orient patients and their families about nutritional therapy, in addition to giving further explanations to prolong survival, decrease weight loss and improve quality of life.
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