Therefore, patients in this group are more
likely to be able to receive benefits from end-of-life care specific to time frame and prognosis such as hospice.
Yet, new treatment options for advanced-stage cancer may become available, thereby postponing
death and making more difficult the decision of when patients enter end of life and should forgo
treatment. Two other kinds of trajectories that are more typical for patients with organ system failure
and dementia/frailty are more difficult to set time frames for their functional decline and death.13 For
those, determining the beginning of their end-of-life stage is unattainable; therefore, introducing end-oflife
care may be delayed, or they may not receive any end-of-life care until very near death.