To test the feasibility, acceptability and safety of a pediatric advance care planning intervention, Family-Centered Advance Care Planning for Teens With Cancer (FACE-TC).
METHODS:
Adolescent (age 14-20 years)/family dyads (N = 30) with a cancer…
BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization (WHO) advocates for early integration of palliative care for all children with life-threatening illness. Provider awareness and misperceptions, however, can impede this imperative. In the Eurasian region,…
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…
BACKGROUND: Bone metastases typically are associated with osteolytic bone destruction, resulting in bone pain, pathologic fractures, spinal cord compression, and hypercalcemia. Bisphosphonates are potent inhibitors of normal and pathologic bone…
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…
OBJECTIVES: This systematic review aimed to determine the content, mode of delivery, assessment, and outcomes of educational interventions to equip health and social care professionals (HSCPs) when delivering end-of-life (EoL) supportive care for…
With advances in biomedical sciences, a growing number of conditions affecting children have evolved from being considered life-limiting to almost chronic diseases. However, improvements in survival rates often come at a cost of increased medical…
Objective: Palliative care for children is becoming an important subspecialty of healthcare. Although concurrent administration of curative and palliative care is recommended, timely referral to pediatric palliative care (PPC) services remains…
BACKGROUND: Anorexia is a common symptom in patients with cancer, which can lead to poor tolerance of treatment and can contribute to cachexia in extreme cases. Children with advanced-stage cancer are especially vulnerable to malnutrition resulting…
Although many of the 16,000 children in the United States diagnosed who are with cancer each year could benefit from pediatric palliative care, these services remain underused. Evidence regarding the barriers impeding access to comprehensive…
BACKGROUND: The early integration of palliative care significantly improves quality of life for children with cancer. However, cultural, structural, and socioeconomic barriers can delay the integration of palliative care into cancer care,…
Behavioral problems are common in children with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) and can be challenging to manage at home. Standardized measures were used to assess behavior in 99 pediatric patients with TSC and to evaluate parenting stress in their…
BACKGROUND: The purpose of the current study was to investigate longitudinally children's behavioral and social competence outcomes up to 2 years after pediatric stem cell transplantation (SCT) and related factors. METHODS: Ninety-nine mothers and 24…
Purpose: High-quality communication is a standard of palliative care for adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer. Yet, few studies have characterized the negative communication experiences of AYAs near the end of life (EOL). Method(s): We…
BACKGROUND: Professional education pertaining to end-of-life care with pediatric oncology patients is limited. Pediatric trainees learn about end-of-life conversations largely from the provider's perspective. Bereaved parents can inform the education…
Background: End-of-life (EOL) quality markers in adult oncology include home death and intensive care unit avoidance. Corresponding markers are lacking in pediatric oncology. This study was aimed at describing bereaved parents' perspectives of…
The purpose of this study was to investigate the needs of bereaved parents in Greece (N = 56) regarding the provision of hospital based bereavement services after the death of their child to cancer. The participants did not receive formal or informal…
The body composition of 23 patients with cachexia resulting from malignant or benign inflammatory disease was studied. Skinfold thickness and radioisotope tracer measurements enabled us to estimate total body fat, lean body mass, the ratio of fat…
BACKGROUND: It has been debated whether psychological stress causes cancer, but the scientific evidence remains contradictory. The objective of this study was to investigate whether the death of a child is related to cancer risk in bereaved parents.…
BACKGROUND: Refusal of appropriately indicated do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders may cause harm and distress for patients, families, and the medical team. We conducted a retrospective study to determine the frequency and predictors of refusals of DNR…
Background Elevated distress has been well documented among parents of children with cancer. Family systems theories suggest that cancer-related stressors and parental distress have the potential to affect child-rearing practices, but this topic has…
BACKGROUND: Treatment options for childhood cancer have improved substantially, although in many low- and middle-income countries survival is lagging behind. Integral childhood cancer care involves the whole spectrum from detection and diagnosis to…
Children and adolescents with hematologic malignancies consistently experience higher rates of aggressive care at the end of life. Clinicians and researchers must now turn their attention to reducing this disparity.
The overall cure rate for cancer in childhood now exceeds 70% and is projected to reach 85% by the year 2010 in industrialized countries. Therefore, major attention is being placed on reducing the side effects of therapy. However, 85% of the world's…
The concept of quality of life (QoL) is used in consultations to plan the care and treatment of children and young people (CYP) with brain tumors (BTs). The way in which CYP, their parents, and their health care professionals (HCP) each understand…
BACKGROUND. Development of tolerance to opioid analgesics occurs often in patients with cancer-related pain. Cross-tolerance among opioid analgesics provides the physician with a major management problem. Incomplete cross-tolerance among opioid…
CONTEXT:
Children at end of life often experience multiple complex chronic conditions with more than 50% of children reportedly having two or more conditions. These complex chronic conditions are unlikely to occur in an entirely uniform manner in…
BACKGROUND: When children are seriously ill, parents rely on communication with their clinicians. However, in previous research, researchers have not defined how this communication should function in pediatric oncology. We aimed to identify these…
BACKGROUND: The use of oxycodone to treat chronic cancer pain has been hampered by its short elimination half-life, which necessitates administration every 4 hours. This study compared the clinical efficacy and safety of a novel oxycodone formulation…
BACKGROUND. The short elimination half-life of hydromorphone necessitates 4-hourly dosing to maintain optimal levels of analgesia in patients with chronic cancer pain. The purpose of this study was to compare the clinical efficacy and safety of…
BACKGROUND: Children undergoing stem cell transplant (SCT) experience high levels of somatic distress and mood disturbance. This trial evaluated the efficacy of complementary therapies (massage, humor therapy, relaxation/imagery) for reducing…
BACKGROUND: Palliative care is one of the necessary elements in the treatment of children with cancer. Adaptation of country-specific palliative care practices to universal standards can provide valuable information for health care stakeholders. AIM:…
Importance: Lack of pediatric advance care planning has been associated with poor communication, increased hospitalization, poor quality of life, and legal actions. Clinicians presume that families understand adolescents' treatment preferences for…
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…
PURPOSE: The majority of pediatric cancer deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Pediatric palliative care (PPC) focuses on relieving physical, psychosocial, and spiritual suffering throughout the continuum of cancer care and is…
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…
Adolescence is a time of great physical change and maturing brain function. This leads to adolescents establishing independence and coming to terms with the implications of their own actions. Not surprisingly, this phase is characterized by…
