Accurate prognostic awareness facilitates, whereas better quality of life and more anxiety symptoms hinder end-of-life care discussions: a longitudinal survey study in terminally ill cancer patients’ last six months of life

Terminally ill cancer patients do not engage in end-of-life (EOL)-care discussions or do so only when death is imminent, despite guidelines for EOL-care discussions early in their disease trajectory. Most studies on patient-reported EOL-care discussions are cross-sectional without exploring the evolution of EOL-care discussions as death approaches. Cross-sectional studies cannot determine the direction of association between EOL-care discussions and patients' prognostic awareness, psychological well-being, and quality of life (QOL).

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