Negotiating decisions on aggressive cancer care at end-of-life between patients, family members, and physicians - A qualitative interview study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Patients with advanced cancer do receive increasingly aggressive end-of-life care, despite it does often not prolong survival time but entails decreased quality of life for patients. This qualitative study explores the unfolding of aggressive end-of-life care in clinical practice focusing on the decision-making process and the quality of end-of-life care from family members' perspective.

Materials and methods

We conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 family members (six of cancer patients with and ten without aggressive end-of-life care) at the National Center for Tumor Diseases Heidelberg, Germany. We conducted a content analysis applying a theoretical framework to differentiate between 'decision-making' (process of deciding for one choice among many option

SUBMITTER: Haun MW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9539079 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature