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Background: Patients’ prognostic beliefs are known to influence treatment decisions. However, the evolution of these beliefs over an extended period in patients with metastatic cancer is understudied. We assessed longitudinal changes in prognostic beliefs and investigated their association with patients’ changing health status. Methods: We surveyed a cohort of 600 patients with solid metastatic cancer every 9 months, up to 54 months. At each time point, we assessed whether patients believed their current treatments would cure them (responses classified as accurate, inaccurate, or uncertain belief) and tested the association of their response with symptom burden and recent unplanned hospital admission. Results: Only 29% of patients had accurate prognostic belief at baseline, and 24% of patients changed from having accurate to uncertain/inaccurate belief at some point during follow-up. Patients who experienced greater symptom burden were less likely to report inaccurate (relative risk ratio [RRR], 0.87; 95% CI, 0.84–0.90) or uncertain prognostic belief (RRR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.87–0.92), whereas those with a recent unplanned hospital admission were more likely to report inaccurate (RRR, 2.71; 95% CI, 1.48–4.94) or uncertain belief (RRR, 2.34; 95% CI, 1.34–4.07) compared with accurate belief. An increase in symptom burden was associated with change toward accurate belief (RRR, 1.75; 95% CI, 1.33–2.31) as opposed to no change. Conclusions: In our study of long-term changes in prognostic beliefs among patients with metastatic cancer, reported prognostic beliefs were unstable, changed from accurate to inaccurate/uncertain and vice versa, and were associated with their changing health status. Our findings imply that conversations about goals of care must occur regularly to factor in these changes.

Background: Most studies describe the “average healthcare cost trend” among patients with cancer. We aimed to delineate heterogeneous trajectories of healthcare cost during the last 2 years of life of patients with a metastatic cancer and to assess the associated sociodemographic and clinical characteristics and healthcare use. Patients and Methods: We analyzed a sample of 353 deceased patients from a cohort of 600 with a solid metastatic cancer in Singapore, and we used group-based trajectory modeling to identify trajectories of total healthcare cost during the last 2 years of life. Results: The average cost trend showed that mean monthly healthcare cost increased from SGD $3,997 during the last 2 years of life to SGD $7,516 during the last month of life (USD $1 = SGD $1.35). Group-based trajectory modeling identified 4 distinct trajectories: (1) low and steadily decreasing cost (13%); (2) steeply increasing cost in the last year of life (14%); (3) high and steadily increasing cost (57%); and (4) steeply increasing cost before the last year of life (16%). Compared with the low and steadily decreasing cost trajectory, patients with private health insurance (β [SE], 0.75 [0.37]; P=.04) and a greater preference for life extension (β [SE], −0.14 [0.07]; P=.06) were more likely to follow the high and steadily increasing cost trajectory. Patients in the low and steadily decreasing cost trajectory were most likely to have used palliative care (62%) and to die in a hospice (27%), whereas those in the steeply increasing cost before the last year of life trajectory were least likely to have used palliative care (14%) and most likely to die in a hospital (75%). Conclusions: The study quantifies healthcare cost and shows the variability in healthcare cost trajectories during the last 2 years of life. Policymakers, clinicians, patients, and families can use this information to better anticipate, budget, and manage healthcare costs.

Background: Reducing suffering at the end of life is important. Doing so requires a comprehensive understanding of the course of suffering for patients with cancer during their last year of life. This study describes trajectories of psychological, spiritual, physical, and functional suffering in the last year of life among patients with a solid metastatic cancer. Patients and Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study of 600 patients with a solid metastatic cancer between July 2016 and December 2019 in Singapore. We assessed patients’ psychological, spiritual, physical, and functional suffering every 3 months until death. Data from the last year of life of 345 decedents were analyzed. We used group-based multitrajectory modeling to delineate trajectories of suffering during the last year of a patient’s life. Results: We identified 5 trajectories representing suffering: (1) persistently low (47% of the sample); (2) slowly increasing (14%); (3) predominantly spiritual (21%); (4) rapidly increasing (12%); and (5) persistently high (6%). Compared with patients with primary or less education, those with secondary (high school) (odds ratio [OR], 3.49; 95% CI, 1.05–11.59) education were more likely to have rapidly increasing versus persistently low suffering. In multivariable models adjusting for potential confounders, compared with patients with persistently low suffering, those with rapidly increasing suffering had more hospital admissions (β=0.24; 95% CI, 0.00–0.47) and hospital days (β=0.40; 95% CI, 0.04–0.75) during the last year of life. Those with persistently high suffering had more hospital days (β=0.70; 95% CI, 0.23–1.17). Conclusions: The course of suffering during the last year of life among patients with cancer is variable and related to patients’ hospitalizations. Understanding this variation can facilitate clinical decisions to minimize suffering and reduce healthcare costs at the end of life.

Background: Advance care planning (ACP) involves documentation of patients’ preferred place of death (PoD). This assumes that patients’ preferred PoD will not change over time; yet, evidence for this is inconclusive. We aimed to assess the extent and correlates of change in patients’ preferred PoD over time. Materials and Methods: Using data from a cohort study of patients with advanced cancer in Singapore, we analyzed preferred PoD (home vs institution including hospital, hospice, and nursing home vs unclear) among 466 patients every 6 months for a period of 2 years. At each time point, we assessed the proportion of patients who changed their preferred PoD from the previous time point. Using a multinomial logistic regression model, we assessed patient factors (demographics, understanding of disease stage, ACP, recent hospitalization, quality of life, symptom burden, psychologic distress, financial difficulty, prognosis) associated with change in their preferred PoD. Results: More than 25% of patients changed their preferred PoD every 6 months, with no clear trend in change toward home or institution. Patients psychologically distressed at the time of the survey had increased likelihood of changing their preferred PoD to home (relative risk ratio [RRR], 1.02; 95% CI, 1.00–1.05) and to an institution (RRR, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.02–1.10) relative to no change in preference. Patients hospitalized in the past 6 months were more likely to change their preferred PoD to home (RRR, 1.56; 95% CI, 1.07–2.29) and less likely to change to an institution (RRR, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.28–0.88) relative to no change in preference. Conclusions: The present study provides evidence of instability in the preferred PoD of patients with advanced cancer. ACP documents need to be updated regularly to ensure they accurately reflect patients’ current preference.