@mustang08, such a good question. It sounds like your husband's current treatment is to provide comfort, not remission. Palliative treatment can be to help with pain and to reduce other quality of life-limiting symptoms like nausea or vomitting.

Is this what is happening? Are the treatments helping or hindering quality of life?

@amyb5, you're so right that the choice is individual. And that choice can be modified along the way. My dad thought he was going to not take chemo with stage 4. We all were comfortable with that decision. But in consult with the oncologist, he changed his mind. He chose chemo for 6 months and then decided to stop. Each decision was right for him and our family at the time they were made. If you have any links to TedTalks that you found particularly helpful, feel free to post them.