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Patients with advanced cancer often receive aggressive end-of-life care. To examine associations between family satisfaction and aggressiveness of end-of-life care, U.S. researchers conducted a national interview study of families of 1146 patients who had died from lung or colorectal cancer. Most interviewees were spouses or adult children who always or usually accompanied patients to medical appointments, discussed important medical issues with patients, and spent every day with patients in the last week of life. The median time from death to interview was 145 days.
Most family members rated patients' end-of-life care as excellent (51%) or very good (28%). In adjusted analyses, family members more commonly rated end-of-life care as “excelle…