While many would rather not think about when someone might die, knowing how much longer a seriously ill person has left to live can be very useful for managing how they spend their final days. Researchers have now revealed eight signs in patients with advanced cancer associated with death within 3 days.

Share on Pinterest The ability to accurately diagnose impending death in patients would be beneficial to clinicians, patients and their families.

Diagnosis of an impending death can help clinicians, patients and their friends and family to make important decisions. Doctors can spare time and resources by stopping daily bloodwork and medication that will not make a short-term difference. Families will know if they still have time to visit their relatives.

“This study shows that simple bedside observations can potentially help us to recognize if a patient has entered the final days of life,” says study author Dr. David Hui.

“Upon further confirmation of the usefulness of these ‘tell-tale’ signs, we will be able to help doctors, nurses, and families to better recognize the dying process, and in turn, to provide better care for the patients in the final days of life.”

The study, published in Cancer, follows on from the Investigating the Process of Dying Study – a longitudinal observational study that documented the clinical signs of patients admitted to an acute palliative care unit (APCU). During the study, the researchers identified five signs that were highly predictive of an impending death within 3 days.

For the new study, the researchers again observed the physical changes in cancer patients admitted to two APCUs – at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX, and the Barretos Cancer Hospital in Brazil.