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: 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: 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…
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: Adult patients with hematologic malignancies are less likely to receive palliative care and more likely to accept intensive anti-cancer treatments until end-of-life than those with solid tumors, but limited data are available regarding…
BACKGROUND: In medical oncology, palliative care principles and advance care planning are often discussed later in illness, limiting time for conversations to guide goal-concordant care. In pediatric oncology, the frequency, timing and content of…
Despite improvements in survival, cancer remains the leading cause of non-accidental death in children and adolescents, who risk receiving high-intensity end-of-life (HI-EOL) care. OBJECTIVE: To analyse treatments for relapses (particularly in the…
BACKGROUND: The quality of palliative and end-of-life (EOL) care for adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer remains largely unknown. OBJECTIVE(S): To describe caregivers of AYA cancer decedents perspectives' on EOL care quality related to…
Broaching conversations about goals of care can be difficult for clinicians. Presently, the communication strategies used by pediatric oncologists to approach goals of care conversations are not well understood. We recorded disease re-evaluation…
Background: Integrated pediatric palliative oncology (PPO) outpatient models are emerging to assist oncologists, children, and families throughout their course with cancer. Significant time is devoted to care coordination ("nonbillable"time), but the…
BACKGROUND: Adolescents and young adults (AYAs; aged 15-39 years) with cancer frequently receive intensive measures at the end of life (EoL), but the perspectives of AYAs and their family members on barriers to optimal EoL care are not well…
AIM: To assess patients' barriers to pain management and analgesic medication adherence in advanced cancer patients METHODS: Prospective cross-sectional study in advanced cancer patients receiving chronic opioid therapy. Age, gender, cancer…
Objective: We sought to describe palliative care services available to children with cancer along with pediatric oncologists' current and ideal practices of palliative care involvement in children with cancer. Design(s): A novel survey tool was…
CONTEXT: Many children with advanced cancer are not referred to palliative care despite both professional recommendations to do so and bereaved parental preference for earlier support from sub-specialty palliative care. OBJECTIVES: To assess the…
BACKGROUND: Research has highlighted the need for evidence-based interventions to improve paediatric advance care planning (pACP) in adolescents with cancer. Although adolescents express the desire and ability to share their values, beliefs and…
The extent of Advance Care Planning (ACP) among Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) cancer patients is not well characterized. This retrospective case note audit scrutinized the records of all AYA patients (aged 16-25 years) known to a regional…
Historically, adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients with cancer, diagnosed for the first time at age 15 through 39 years, have often been identified as a "lost tribe" without a medical "home"; neither pediatric nor adult oncology services were…
Context Among adults with cancer, measures for high quality end-of-life care (EOLC) include avoidance of hospitalizations near end of life. For children with cancer, no measures exist to evaluate or improve EOLC, and adult quality measures may not…
OBJECTIVE: Meaning-making may assist individuals in adaptation to stressful life events, particularly bereavement. However, few studies have examined meaning-making among pediatric populations with advanced illness to understand how this process…
BACKGROUND: Pediatric palliative care (PPC) for oncology patients improves quality of life and the likelihood of goal-concordant care. However, barriers to involvement exist. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to increase days between PPC consult and death for…
Context: Most children with cancer die in hospital settings, without hospice, and many suffer from high-intensity medical interventions and pain at end of life (EOL). Objective(s): To examine the effects of COMPLETE: a communication plan early…
BACKGROUND: Few evidence-based psychosocial programs have been tested among adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with advanced cancer (AC), and early advance care planning (ACP) in this population is rare. The authors aimed to determine the…
Purpose: Concurrent hospice care provides important end-of-life care for youth under 21 years. Those nearing 21 years must decide whether to shift to adult hospice or leave hospice for life-prolonging care. This decision may be challenging for young…
