Is shared decision-making vanishing at the end-of-life? A descriptive and qualitative study of advanced cancer patients' involvement in specific therapies decision-making.

Background Little is known about what is at stake at a subjective level for the oncologists and the advanced cancer patients when they face the question whether to continue, limit or stop specific therapies. We studied (1) the frequency of such questioning, and (2) subjective determinants of the decision-making process from the physicians’ and the patients’ perspectives.