Almost half of the nation's hospices are reluctant to accept terminal-stage cancer patients with HIV, due to lack of experience or facilities to treat them, a survey showed Thursday.

The survey was conducted in January and February by Hideaki Nagai, head of the terminal-care department at the National Hospital Organization's Tokyo hospital.

Of the 139 terminal-care facilities across Japan, 98 responded to the survey. The results were presented at a meeting of the Japanese Society for Palliative Medicine in July.