Aim: To describe the experience involving the early introduction of palliative care (PC) in oncological patients treated within the paediatric oncology unit of the Istituto Nazionale Tumori of Milan and compare this cohort with a cohort of patients…
BACKGROUND: Decision making is a highly complex task when providing care for seriously ill children. Physicians, parents, and children face many challenges when identifying and selecting from available treatment options., METHODS: This qualitative…
Background: Evidence shows that medical education includes a variety of basic and clinical skills. Ethical and human values are not typically considered in medical school curricula, and this is evident in medical practice in certain scenarios such as…
BACKGROUND: Recent advances in immunology, genomics, and cellular therapy have opened numerous therapeutic possibilities in pediatric hematology-oncology, generating new hope in poor prognosis situations. How decisions are made when it comes to…
BACKGROUND: Despite growing evidence and support for shared decision making, little is known about the experiences of parents who hold more active roles than they wish. METHODS: This was a prospective cohort study of 372 parents of children with…
Delivering optimal end-of-life (EOL) care to children and adolescents is a healthcare priority, yet relatively little is known about what patients, families, and healthcare providers (HCPs) consider "best" practices. The objective of this study was…
BACKGROUND: Children with brain and central nervous system (CNS) tumors experience substantial challenges to their quality of life during their disease course. These challenges are opportunities for increased subspecialty palliative care (PC)…
Background: Pediatric patients with cancer have many opportunities for increased primary or specialty palliative care (PC). This is particularly true for patients with solid tumors who often have higher symptom burden and worse outcomes. However, how…
Context: Although palliative care (PC) continues to be integrated into pediatric oncological care, only a minority of patients with cancer receive a formal PC consult.
Context: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has impacted most elements of daily life, including the provision of support after a child's death and the experience of parental bereavement.Objectives: This study aims to examine ways in which COVID-19…
Background/Objectives: To address a service gap at the primary treating Center arising from patient overload and on holidays/weekends, Cankids Pediatric Palliative Care Center in Delhi was providing children with cancer inpatient admissions and…
Background: Assessing the quality of life (QoL) of children receiving end-of-life (EoL) care through evaluations by the children and their bereaved families is challenging; presently, there is no QoL assessment measure that is appropriate for use in…
ObjectiveAlthough many siblings experience distress after a child�s cancer diagnosis, their psychosocial functioning is seldom assessed in clinical oncology settings. One barrier to systematic sibling screening is the lack of a validated,…
BACKGROUND: The provision of Section 2302 of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) allowed pediatric patients who are enrolled in Medicaid to receive hospice care concurrently with curative treatment (i.e., concurrent hospice…
BACKGROUND: Childhood cancer causes significant physical and emotional stress. Patients and families benefit from palliative care (PC) to reduce symptom burden, improve quality of life, and enhance family-centered care. We evaluated palliative…
BACKGROUND: Patients with a terminal illness should have access to their chosen location of death. Cancer is the leading cause of non-accidental death among adolescents and young adults (AYAs; those aged 15-39 years). Although surveys have suggested…
BACKGROUND: Many adult patients with cancer who know they are dying choose less intense care; additionally, high-intensity care is associated with worse caregiver outcomes. Little is known about intensity of end-of-life care in children with cancer.…
Few studies have investigated palliative and end-of-life care processes among young adults (YAs), aged 18-34 years, who died of cancer. This retrospective study used a natural language processing algorithm to identify documentation and timing of four…
PURPOSE:The early grief experience of parents of children who died of cancer remains understudied. Understanding psychosocial symptomology and functioning of parents early in their bereavement is essential to developing supportive interventions aimed…
BACKGROUND: Regional studies show that children with cancer receive medically intense end-of-life (EOL) care, but EOL care patterns, including palliative care utilization in Alabama, remain unknown. METHODS: This was a retrospective study of 233…
Background: There is no consensus on what constitutes "early" pediatric palliative care (PPC) referral within pediatric oncology. Few studies report outcomes based on PPC timing. Objectives: Investigate associations between early (
OBJECTIVE: Although support programs for children whose parents have cancer have been described and evaluated, formal research has not been conducted to document outcomes. We adapted a group intervention called CLIMB(R), originally developed in the…
The effect of pediatric advance care planning (pACP) on the sustainability of end-of-life treatment preference congruence between adolescents with cancer and their families has not been examined.To evaluate the longitudinal efficacy of the…
BACKGROUND: Recurrent or refractory cancer often results in substantial and extensive physical, emotional, psychosocial, and spiritual burdens for children and their families. However, the therapeutic benefits of legacy interventions in children with…
Background: Care teams are increasingly expected to attend to the needs of patient's personal caregivers (e.g., family members). Improving communication among oncologists, patients with advanced cancer, and their personal caregivers might enhance…
Oral mucositis can be caused by chemotherapy and can affect a patient's quality of life. Nowadays, to prevent chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis (CIOM) is a crucial point in palliative care centers. This trial aimed to assess the effectiveness of…
Paediatric palliative care aims to support children and young people with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions, and their families, from the time of diagnosis. Early integration within oncology has been recognised as having benefits for all…
OBJECTIVES: Clinicians and parents are encouraged to have open and honest communication about end of life with children with cancer, yet there remains limited research in this area. We examined family communication and preferred forms of support…
In pediatric oncology nursing, and across practice disciplines in general, clinical research serves as the cornerstone for improving patient care. Historically, advances made in the care and cure of childhood cancer have stemmed directly from…
Background: To the authors' knowledge, end-of-life (EOL) care outcomes among adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer who are living in poverty remain poorly understood. The primary aim of the current study was to examine the effect of poverty…
BACKGROUND: In developed countries, cancer remains the leading cause of pediatric death from illness after the neonatal period. OBJECTIVE: To describe the end-of-life care characteristics of children and adolescents with solid tumors (ST) or…
Introduction: Hematologic malignancies (HM) represent the most common neoplasms in childhood. Despite improved overall survival rates, they are still a major contributor to cancer death in children. Aims: To determine the proportion of children with…
CONTEXT: Children with incurable cancer may participate in research studies at the end of life (EOL). These studies create knowledge that can improve the care of future patients. OBJECTIVE: To describe stakeholder perspectives regarding research…
A growing evidence base highlights the negative impact of poor psychosocial care at end-of-life. Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) 15-39 years of age with cancer face unique medical and psychosocial challenges that make them especially vulnerable…
Purpose Cancer is the leading cause of nonaccidental death among adolescents and young adults (AYAs). High-intensity end-of-life care is expensive and may not be consistent with patient goals. However,the intensity of end-of-life care forAYAdecedents…
BACKGROUND: There is insufficient knowledge available about the impact of paediatric palliative care at home on meeting family needs and ensuring the highest quality of care for the dying child. The aim of this study was to elucidate parents'…
Approximately 2,200 children and adolescents die a cancer-related death each year in the United States; of these, almost 90% will die while experiencing 2 to 8 troubling symptoms. With improved symptom control and end-of-life care, these patients…
OBJECTIVES: Although transfusion support is commonly used in oncological palliative care, there is still a paucity of literature. We examined the transfusion support provided in the terminal stage of the disease and compared the approach at a…
Background: In 2018, >75,000 children were newly affected by the diagnosis of advanced cancer in a parent. Unfortunately, few programs exist to help parents and their children manage the impact of advanced disease together as a family. The Enhancing…
