The palliative care triage system in advanced cancer emergency care: development and initial validation.

Objective: We aimed to develop and validate a new emergency triage tool for use on patients with cancer undergoing palliative care (PC).

Methods: In phase I, the new tool was developed after literature review and expert committee meetings. A prospective longitudinal study in phase II assessed the interobserver reliability of the tool.

Clinical signs of impending death in cancer patients.

Background: The physical signs of impending death have not been well characterized in cancer patients. A better understanding of these signs may improve the ability of clinicians to diagnose impending death. We examined the frequency and onset of 10 bedside physical signs and their diagnostic performance for impending death.