Tseng YD, et al. - Given the unexpectedly short survival of a cohort of cancer patients that underwent curative-intent radiation within the last year of life (LYOL), researchers here examined this cohort for the proportion with relapsed/refractory disease, defined causes of death, and examined whether treatment intent was associated with aggressiveness of care at the end of life. Claims data and radiotherapy records were obtained from patients seen at a single academic institution and had died between October 1, 2014, and September 30, 2015. They assessed a total of 870 cancer patients; of these 290 were irradiated within the LYOL; 287/290 had treatment intent recorded (101 curative-intent, 186 palliative-intent). The curative-intent patients, in the majority, had hematologic malignancies and/or underwent transplant (44.6%), followed by head and neck (9.9%) and gastrointestinal malignancies (9.9%). Relative to palliative-intent patients, cancer patients receiving curative-intent radiation in the LYOL received more aggressive care at the end of life. The most common cause of death was tumor progression (n = 65; 64.4%), followed by treatment-related mortality (n = 27; 26.7%), of which transplant/hematologic malignancy patients (n = 19) were the majority.