LIMITATIONS
cancer
CANCER, ADVANCED CANCER
Our study has several limitations. First, the sample enrolled a relatively small number of Chinese cancer patients from a single health system. Although it was a randomized survey, the sample size does not allow us to rule out the possibility that results were confounded by unmeasured variables, such as how well cancer patients understood their illnesses or how often they spoke with their physicians about their prognosis. Second, although we have built a scenario of ADs for patients with advanced cancer, due to real treatment restrictions, such as the Chinese medical act, the choices cancer patients made in our study were not always available for treatment. We note that comfort care poses problems when cancer responses may vary according to individual health issues, which is attenuated by our selection criteria, especially those aged over 40, stage III or IV cancer and hospitalized and receiving treatment. For future research, we recommend extending the selection criteria to include samples of other cancer patients.