A new study finds that half of cancer patients received chemotherapy in their final months of life, even though the therapy — which can cause nausea, vomiting and other grueling side effects — had no chance of curing them.

Doctors often prescribe chemo to people in the end stages of cancer in the hope that the drugs will shrink patients’ tumors and make them feel better, said study co-author Holly Prigerson, co-director of the Center for Research on End-of-Life Care at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.

Her new research, however, found no evidence that chemo improved patients’ quality of life. For the healthiest, least disabled patients, quality of life actually got worse after chemo, Prigerson said. The study of 312 patients, published Thursday in JAMA Oncology, included only people expected to live six months or less.

Read the article “Study: Chemo Doesn’t Help End-Stage Cancer Patients” on usatoday.com.