There are multiple opportunities to improve patient wellbeing throughout all phases of cancer care: from the point of diagnosis, prior to treatment and at the advanced stages of incurable disease [4, 8]. Modern palliative care should now encompass rehabilitation [6] as well as forming an integral and concurrent element of active cancer care [45]. Rehabilitation for patients with incurable cancer has the potential to significantly improve functional status and QoL for the ever-increasing numbers of patients ‘living with cancer’,with potentially large socio-economic benefits. Further, carefully designed high-quality trials are needed, but the current shift toward a joint rehabilitative-palliative approach throughout the cancer trajectory shines a light in the dark for cancer patients of the future.