Integrated care has often been seen as a ‘nice to have’ optional extra, rather than as a basic requirement to improve caregiving for patients with advanced chronic disease and cancer. The World Health Organization (WHO)1 definition of integrated health services, ‘The management and delivery of health services so that clients receive a continuum of preventive and curative services, according to their needs over time and across different levels of the health system’, may be too general to those working in palliative care contexts on a daily base. The purpose of this Special Edition of Palliative Medicine is to draw together the best available reviews and empirical research to strengthen the evidence base for care integration in palliative care contexts