Barnes-Harris M, Allingham S, Morgan D, et al. - Researchers utilized consecutive, routinely obtained, point-of-care national data to compare advanced malignant and non-malignant pulmonary diseases in terms of functional decline and symptom distress. They found that, when comparing patients with lung cancers (89,904 observations; 18,586 patients) and non-malignant end-stage respiratory diseases (14,827 observations; 4,279 patients), patients with lung cancer died at a significantly lower age vs those with non-malignant end-stage respiratory diseases. Both groups exhibited similar functional decline, which accelerated in the last month of life. With cancer and non-malignant disease, there was a greater pain-related distress and breathing-related distress, respectively. Findings revealed that the pattern of functional decline as well as overall symptom burden was comparable across this large dataset unlike previous datasets. Timely access to palliative care should depend on what the patient needs, not the diagnosis.