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Physicians often have difficulty discontinuing preventive interventions (both therapeutic and diagnostic) in patients with terminal illnesses, but doing so might have important quality-of-life benefits. In this study, researchers randomized 381 older patients (mean age, 74) who had predicted lifespans of <1 year and recent declines in functional status to continue or discontinue statins. Nearly half of participants had terminal cancer, 58% had known cardiovascular disease, and most had taken statins for >5 years. Participants were followed for a median of 18 weeks; nearly half died during follow-up.
No significant differences were found between the groups in the proportion who died within 60 days, median time to death, or incidence of advers…