And other research was consistent: J. Rodin and E. Langer, “Long-Term Effects of a Control-Relevant Intervention with the Institutionalized Aged,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 35 (1977): 897–902.
In 1908, a Harvard philosopher: J. Royce, The Philosophy of Loyalty (Macmillan, 1908).
Research has found that in units with fewer than twenty people: M. P. Calkins, “Powell Lawton’s Contributions to Long-Term Care Settings,” Journal of Housing for the Elderly 17 (2008): 1–2, 67–84.
As Dworkin wrote: R. Dworkin, “Autonomy and the Demented Self,” Milbank Quarterly 64, supp. 2 (1986): 4–16.
6: LETTING GO
More than 15 percent of lung cancers: C. M. Rudin et al., “Lung Cancer in Never Smokers: A Call to Action,” Clinical Cancer Research 15 (2009): 5622–25.
85 percent of them respond: C. Zhou et al., “Erlotinib versus Chemotherapy for Patients with Advanced EGFR Mutation-Positive Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer,” Lancet Oncology 12 (2011): 735–42.
Studies had shown: C. P. Belani et al., “Maintenance Pemetrexed plus Best Supportive Care (BSC) versus Placebo plus BSC: A Randomized Phase III Study in Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer,” Journal of Clinical Oncology 27 (2009): 18s.
In the United States, 25 percent of all Medicare spending: G. F. Riley and J. D. Lubitz, “Long-Term Trends in Medicare Payments in the Last Year of Life,” Health Services Research 45 (2010): 565–76.
Data from elsewhere: L. R. Shugarman, S. L. Decker, and A. Bercovitz, “Demographic and Social Characteristics and Spending at the End of Life,” Journal of Pain and Symptom Management 38 (2009): 15–26.
Spending on a disease like cancer: A. B. Mariotto, K. R. Yabroff, Y. Shao et al., “Projections of the Cost of Cancer Care in the United States: 2010–2020,” Journal of the National Cancer Institute 103 (2011): 117–28. See also M. J. Hassett and E. B. Elkin, “What Does Breast Cancer Treatment Cost and What Is It Worth?,” Hematology/Oncology Clinics of North America 27 (2013): 829–41.
In 2008, the national Coping with Cancer project: A. A. Wright et al., “Associations Between End-of-Life Discussions, Patient Mental Health, Medical Care Near Death, and Caregiver Bereavement Adjustment,” Journal of the American Medical Association 300 (2008): 1665–73.
People with serious illness have priorities: P. A. Singer, D. K. Martin, and M. Kelner, “Quality End-of-Life Care: Patients’ Perspectives,” Journal of the American Medical Association 281 (1999): 163–68; K. E. Steinhauser et al., “Factors Considered Important at the End of Life by Patients, Family, Physicians, and Other Care Providers,” Journal of the American Medical Association 284 (2000): 2476.
But as end-of-life researcher Joanne Lynn: J. Lynn, Sick to Death and Not Going to Take It Anymore (University of California Press, 2004).
Guides to ars moriendi: J. Shinners, ed., Medieval Popular Religion 1000–1500: A Reader, 2nd ed. (Broadview Press, 2007).
Last words: D. G. Faust, This Republic of Suffering (Knopf, 2008), pp. 10–11.
swift catastrophic illness is the exception: M. Heron, “Deaths: Leading Causes for 2009,” National Vital Statistics Reports 61 (2009), http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr61/nvsr61_07.pdf. See also Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Health at a Glance 2013, http://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/health-at-a-glance.htm.
First, our own views may be unrealistic: N. A. Christakis and E. B. Lamont, “Extent and Determinants of Error in Doctors’ Prognoses in Terminally Ill Patients: Prospective Cohort Study,” BMJ 320 (2000): 469–73.
Second, we often avoid voicing: E. J. Gordon and C. K. Daugherty, “‘Hitting You Over the Head’: Oncologists’ Disclosure of Prognosis to Advanced Cancer Patients,” Bioethics 17 (2003): 142–68; W. F. Baile et al., “Oncologists’ Attitudes Toward and Practices in Giving Bad News: An Exploratory Study,” Journal of Clinical Oncology 20 (2002): 2189–96.
Gould published an extraordinary essay: S. J. Gould, “The Median Isn’t the Message,” Discover, June 1985.
the case of Nelene Fox: R. A. Rettig, P. D. Jacobson, C. Farquhar, and W. M. Aubry, False Hope: Bone Marrow Transplantation for Breast Cancer (Oxford University Press, 2007).
Ten states enacted laws: Centers for Diseases Control, “State Laws Relating to Breast Cancer,” 2000.
Never mind that Health Net was right: E. A. Stadtmauer, A. O’Neill, L. J. Goldstein et al., “Conventional-Dose Chemotherapy Compared with High-Dose Chemotherapy plus Autologous Hematopoietic Stem-Cell Transplantation for Metastatic Breast Cancer,” New England Journal of Medicine 342 (2000): 1069–76. See also Rettig et al., False Hope.
Aetna, decided to try a different approach: R. Krakauer et al., “Opportunities to Improve the Quality of Care for Advanced Illness,” Health Affairs 28 (2009): 1357–59.