Table 1. Search strategy for medline.

Query Number	Query Content
#1	death OR dying OR terminal care OR terminal illness OR “terminally ill” OR hospice* OR palliative care
#2	biolog* OR physiolog* OR pathophysiolog* OR patholog* OR biomarker* OR biologic marker* OR biological marker* OR biological factor* OR “biology of dying” OR prognostic* OR prognosis OR predict OR mortality OR “terminal cancer syndrome” OR “common terminal pathway” OR “common terminal trajectory” OR “final common pathway” OR “terminal syndrome”
#3	cancer OR tumor* OR tumour* OR neoplas* OR oncolog* OR carcinoma
#4	#1 AND #2 AND #3
#5	Limit #4 to humans, all adults (19 years plus), publication year 2000—current

*Truncation