A new study published in the journal JAMA Oncology confirms that chemotherapy provided during the end-stage of cancer patients does not improve their quality of life.

The study followed 312 people that had progressive cancer with an average life expectancy of four months. Half of them were administered chemotherapy and the other half were not. While they were observed, their basic daily functions were recorded based on their ability to perform certain physical activities life self-care, walking and light working functions.

While the study was going, all cases had a caregiver or family member assigned who regularly recorded the quality of the patient’s life on a weekly basis until their death, according to Echo Examiner.

The study found that patients who were receiving chemotherapy during these last days had a worsened quality of life than those who were not receiving the treatment. What many people, including experts, feared was now confirmed.

Even though the treatment has proved to enhance a patient’s quality of life who have terminal cancer early on during diagnosis, the treatment fails to offer any substantial support during the end-stage and also quickly depreciates their functioning during the last days.

Holly Prigerson, the leading author of the study and Director of the Centr for Research on End-of-Life at Weill Cornell Medical College said, “For oncologists, the default seems to be if a patient can tolerate another chemotherapy regimen, there’s a perception or the conventional wisdom is there is no harm in trying. The power of this analysis is it’s one of the first, I believe, to demonstrate there are harms.”

She also added, “Palliative chemotherapy is designed not to cure patients, but to improve symptoms and hopefully extend their lives. So, we wanted to look at whether patients who were getting palliative chemotherapy had better or worse quality of life.”

Researchers are taking the study in a positive light, hoping that they can now increase a terminal cancer patient’s last days by holding off on using the treatment. With this new confirmed information, they are better at determining whether or not last-minute chemotherapy would be beneficial or not.