BACKGROUND: Parents' perceptions of the quality of information communicated by their child's oncologist about the child's cancer are not well understood. PROCEDURE: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 194 parents of children with cancer…
BACKGROUND: Pediatric patients experience significant symptoms during cancer treatment. Symptom management is frequently inadequate. We studied perceptions of pediatric oncology care providers regarding early integration of palliative care (PC) for…
BACKGROUND: Cancer-related fatigue is one of the most pervasive and debilitating side-effects of cancer treatment and adolescents consistently rate cancer-related fatigue as one of the most distressing aspects of treatment. Because fatigue is also…
BACKGROUND: Current options for location of end-of-life (EOL) care for children with cancer include home, hospital, and freestanding pediatric hospice (FSPH). However, access to these options varies greatly depending on geographical location. We…
PURPOSE: Suffering is a complex multifaceted phenomenon, which has received limited attention in relation to children with terminal illness. As part of a wider study we interviewed parents of children with terminal illness to elicit their…
OBJECTIVES: To validate five items (CPWQ-inf) regarding satisfaction with information provided to cancer patients from health care staff, assess the prevalence of dissatisfaction with this information, and identify factors predicting dissatisfaction.…
BACKGROUND: Promoting resilience is an aspect of psychosocial care that affects patient and whole-family well-being. There is little consensus about how to define or promote resilience during and after pediatric cancer. OBJECTIVES: The aims of this…
BACKGROUND: Coping with grief after a child's death is a complex and dynamic process. The Two-Track Model of Bereavement, which served as the theoretical framework for this study, examines biopsychosocial reactions to bereavement (track I) and…
OBJECTIVE: Chronic cancer pain is often refractory and difficult to treat. Ketamine is a medication with evidence of efficacy in the treatment of chronic pain. DESIGN: This article presents a synthesis of the data on ketamine for refractory cancer…
BACKGROUND: Neuropathic pain causes greater pain intensity and worse quality of life than nociceptive pain. There are no published data that confirm this in the cancer population. AIM: We hypothesised that patients with neuropathic cancer pain had…
AIM: To evaluate the efficacy of a home care program, closely integrated with a medical oncology department. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The charts, prospectively recorded, of all the patients treated at home by the "L'Aquila per la Vita" Home Care Unit…
The aim of this study was to understand children's cancer nurses experiences of providing palliative care in the acute hospital setting. Palliative care for children with cancer is rarely hospital- centred and predominately care is provided in the…
BACKGROUND: Communication plays an important role for the well being of patients, families and also health care professionals in cancer care. Conversely, ineffective communication may cause depression, increased anxiety, hopelessness and decreased of…
PURPOSE: To examine bereavement mental health service use, barriers to use, and factors associated with use in parents bereaved by cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A multicenter, cross-sectional study of 120 parents bereaved by cancer between 6 months…
Palliative care services are increasingly available to primary care physicians for both expert consultations and services to seriously ill patients. The United States now has more than 1400 hospital-based palliative care teams and more than 4700…
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…
BACKGROUND: The aim of the study was to make a comprehensive inventory of the physical, psychological, and social symptoms of children with cancer and their parents during the palliative phase and the extent to which health professionals address…
PURPOSE: Palliative sedation therapy (PST) is a controversial issue. There is a need for internationally accepted definitions and standards. METHODS: A systematic review of the literature was performed by an international panel of 29 palliative care…
The ultimate aim of our research program is to provide strategies that facilitate parental decision-making for parents of children with cancer receiving end-of-life care. As a first step to develop this program, we needed insight into parents'…
Transition has been described by many disciplines. However, the concept of transition has yet to be applied to the sibling experience of childhood cancer. Understanding the transitions that siblings encounter is important because it will offer nurses…
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to identify factors associated with location of death of patients receiving palliative care in a pediatric oncology unit. METHODS: A palliative care program was developed in the pediatric department in order to…
Adolescents and young adults (AYAs [15 to 29 years of age]) with cancer have a distinct cancer epidemiology, evolving hormonal milieu, maturing development, transitions in autonomy, increasing demands in education, entry into the workplace and family…
BACKGROUND: The aim of the present study is to describe the quality of life (QoL) of siblings of children with cancer and to predict it according to their health before the diagnosis of cancer in the ill child and their ways of coping with the…
When a child is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, such as cancer, there is much disruption to the family. It is a struggle for parents to divide their time between the hospital, home, and other healthy siblings. Nurses strive to provide…
This study used both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to assess the pediatric health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in siblings (n = 77) of cancer patients attending summer camp. On quantitative measures (Pediatric Quality of Life…
This study explored the experiences and needs of nine parents who had received hospital-based bereavement support following the death of their child from cancer, in Western Australia. Six prominent themes emerged from thematic data analysis: personal…
To explore siblings'needs and issues when a brother or sister dies of cancer, interviews were conducted with 10 surviving children and young adults. The siblings expressed dissatisfaction with the information they had received and said that they had…
Several studies have been conducted on sibling psychosocial adaptation to cancer in a brother or sister, but little is known on how the long-term adaptation of siblings to the illness develops. The concept quality of life has primarily been applied…
OBJECTIVES: To identify barriers to, models of care for, and initiatives to improve health care of adult survivors of childhood cancer. METHODS: Seventeen health care policy experts were asked to respond to the three objectives through a…
BACKGROUND: Some consider the loss of a child as the most stressful life event. When the death is caused by a malignancy, the parents are commonly exposed not only to their own loss, but also to the protracted physical and emotional suffering of the…
BACKGROUND: One of the questions faced by the parents of a child who is terminally ill with a malignant disease is whether or not they should talk about death with their child. METHODS: In 2001, we attempted to contact all parents in Sweden who had…
This paper addresses issues relating to place of death in young adults with terminal cancer, through the perspectives of their parents. Evidence suggests that the majority of terminally ill cancer patients would prefer the option of a home death, but…
Purpose: The purpose of the study was to identify the relationship between plasma B-endorphin (objective variable) and the dimensions of the Chinese Cancer Pain Assessment Tool (CCPAT) (subjective variables). The dimensions included funcitonal,…
In children affected by tumor, nutritional status is important to sustain aggressive chemotherapy and to support normal growth during and after therapy. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of nutritional status disorders in a…
Twenty-two courses of oral methadone were given to control moderate or severe pain in 19 children with cancer. Of these, 21 courses gave adequate pain control for periods of 5 to 267 days (median 24 days). In 16 courses, methadone was continued until…
Direct conversion from oral morphine to transdermal fentanyl with a ratio of oral morphine/transdermal fentanyl (100:1 mg) daily was examined in patients with cancer pain. Patients with a 'stable and low level of cancer pain' receiving a constant…
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the need for pain medication and the adequacy or inadequacy of the analgesia achieved, in children with cancer who died while in terminal care. Of the 100 pediatric patients with cancer treated at the…
