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Guidelines recommend that physicians initiate discussions about end-of-life (EOL) care with cancer patients who have a life expectancy of less than 1 year. To characterize EOL care discussions, U.S. researchers analyzed prospective data from a study of more than 2000 patients with newly diagnosed stage IV lung or colorectal cancer. Information on discussions was gathered through interviews with patients, or with surrogates if patients had died or were unable to participate in interviews, and from medical record abstraction. Conversation about hospice or resuscitation was the principal criterion showing that EOL discussion had occurred. Nearly half of patients with lung cancer and 22% of patients with colorectal cancer died before the baseli…