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A significant proportion of cancer patients develop malignant wounds. Malignant wounds are generally nonhealable and are managed with palliative methods. Palliative wound care encompasses the pain and symptom management of such wounds. Sixty-seven of 472 cancer patients from a prospective sequential case series of palliative medicine consultations demonstrated malignant wounds at the time of referral and were studied to determine the most common symptoms and anatomic sites associated with malignant wounds. Data were collected from patients' own reports of up to three wound-related symptoms. Overall, 67.7% of malignant wounds were associated with at least one of the following eight symptoms: pain, mass effect, esthetic distress, exudation, odor, pruritus, bleeding, and crusting; 21.9% of wounds were associated with two or more symptoms; and 11.5% of wounds were associated with three …