Summary of participant details and samples collected
| Age (years) | |
| Range | 50–90 |
| Mean | 70.6 |
| Median | 67.5 |
| Sex | |
| Male | 9 |
| Female | 11 |
| Diagnosis (number of cases) | |
| Cancer | |
| Lung | 6 |
| Breast | 3 |
| Colorectal | 3 |
| Prostate | 3 |
| Ovarian | 1 |
| Gastric | 1 |
| Renal | 1 |
| Non-malignant | |
| Multisystem atrophy | 1 |
| Motor neuron disease | 1 |
| Number of samples collected | |
| Range | 1–18 |
| Mean | 6 |
| Median | 5 |
| Number of samples collected in the weeks before dying | |
| Week 1 | 15 samples from 6 participants |
| Week 2 | 17 samples from 9 participants |
| Week 3 | 21 samples from 8 participants |
| Week 4 | 10 samples from 6 participants |
| Participants in the last 4 weeks of life | 11 |
| Participants alive more than 3 months after the study | 6 |