How do doctors determine the amount of time a terminally ill patient has left?
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Based on a mixture of their assessment of the patient, and their prior experience/published data on the the stages and rate of progression for others who have the same illness.
The doctor will assess the patient, and using their knowledge make a judgement as to what ‘stage’ their terminal illness is at.
From there, using data on the outcome for other patients with the same illness they can make an estimation of how long the patient has left to live.
To make the estimate even more robust they will take into account other factors such as how quickly has the illness progressed in this patient vs. the ‘norm’ (is it slower, faster, pretty much typical); what other illnesses or risk factors does this particular patient have that may affect the ‘textbook’ timescales all of which can help refine the estimate.
(NB I am not a doctor/trained medical professional – hopefully one will be along soon to confirm or correct my understanding).
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