About the Authors

Ørnulf Paulsen

ornulf.paulsen@sthf.no

Affiliations Department of Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, European Palliative Care Research Centre, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway, Palliative Care Unit, Telemark Hospital Trust, Skien, Norway

Barry Laird

Affiliations Department of Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, European Palliative Care Research Centre, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway, Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Nina Aass

Affiliations Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, Department of Oncology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway

Tor Lea

Affiliation Department of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Science, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway

Peter Fayers

Affiliations Department of Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, European Palliative Care Research Centre, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway, Department of Public Health, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom

Stein Kaasa

‡ These authors are joint senior authors on this work.

Affiliations Department of Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, European Palliative Care Research Centre, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, Department of Oncology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway

Pål Klepstad

‡ These authors are joint senior authors on this work.

Affiliations Department of Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, European Palliative Care Research Centre, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway, Department of Circulation and Medical Imaging, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway, Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, St Olavs Hospital, Trondheim University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway

Competing Interests

Stein Kaasa has served as a consultant on an Advisory board for, and his institution has received unrestricted grants from, Helsinn. Barry Laird has served as a consultant on advisory boards for Chugai and Pfizer. The other authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: ØP BL SK PK. Formal analysis: ØP PF PK. Funding acquisition: ØP. Investigation: ØP NA SK. Methodology: ØP BL PF SK PK. Project administration: ØP. Resources: ØP TL NA SK. Software: ØP PF PK. Supervision: BL NA PK SK. Validation: ØP PK SK. Writing – original draft: ØP BL PK SK. Writing – review & editing: ØP BL NA TL PF SK PK.