Definitive treatment - any therapy generally accepted as a specific cure of a disease.
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Palliative treatment - therapy designed to relieve or reduce intensity of uncomfortable symptoms but not to produce a cure.
Some kinds of palliative treatment are the use of narcotics to relieve pain in a patient with advanced cancer, the creation of a colostomy to bypass an inoperable obstructing lesion of the bowel, and the debridement of necrotic tissue in a patient with metastatic malignancy.
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Expectant treatment - application of therapeutic measures to relieve symptoms as they arise in the course of a disease, rather than treatment of the cause of illness.
Some kinds of expectant treatment are amputations for gangrene in a patient with diabetes, coronary bypass procedures in a patient with generalized atherosclerosis, and transplantation of tendons in a patient with severe rheumatoid arthritis.
