The e nd of life cannot be predicted for any of us. We do not know when it will happen, who will be with us, how it will occur, or what we will feel. We do know more about the answers to these questions for people living with advanced cancer, however. Cancer is a chronic illness, which means that it takes time for it to grow worse. Dying with a chronic illness is very different from dying because of a sudden illness or event, such as a heart attack or an accident.
Many misconceptions exist about what can happen during the final days and weeks of a person s life.
One stubborn myth about dying from cancer is that the person will finally die from only one cause. When people have a chronic illness such as late-stage cancer, however, they usually do not die from one major event or for only one reason. Instead, they die because of many different factors that combine to slow down the body s important systems, such as the heart and lungs. We cannot say exactly how long someone will live with a chronic illness. Many times, family members and friends want to know this information.