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Dying Trajectories and Prognostication

This chapter discusses the issues of prognostication and dying trajectories in relation to palliative care. Prognostication refers to prediction about future health and it relates not only to predicting death but also to other outcome states such as what percentage of patients with a cancer of a certain stage on initial presentation will eventually develop metastatic disease. Prognostication is also an act of communication. The concept of dying trajectory refers to the change in health status over time as a patient approaches death and it is usually plotted with time on the X axis and health status on the Y axis.