The sixth biennial Palliative Care Congress will be held at the University of Sheffield, April 5-7, 2006. The Congress aims to reflect the best of current multidisciplinary working practice and research in palliative care and is acclaimed nationally and internationally.

The Congress planning team comprises representatives from the Association for Palliative Medicine, the Royal College of Nursing Palliative Nursing Group, and the Palliative Care Research Society.

Through keynote plenary lectures, reports of new research as both poster and oral presentations, master classes, workshops, symposia, and parallel sessions, issues at the forefront of clinical practice and research will be discussed and debated.

A preliminary list of topics includes:

* Future trends in the assessment and interpretation of quality of life

* Palliative and supportive care on the Internet

* Biological, legal, and moral issues in artificial hydration

* How to get started in palliative care research

* Central and peripheral mechanisms of pain

* Which complementary therapies work; which don't

* Bereavement care: old issues, new understanding

* Challenging psychiatric problems in palliative care patients

* Does palliative care reach marginalized patients?

* Management of and research on cachexia

The call for papers closed as this issue of JHPN was in production, so please check the Web site http://www.pccongress.org.uk/ for a full list of topics as the conference shapes up, and for information on travel and accommodation.