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© the authors; licensee ecancermedicalscience. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

More than 21 million children globally need access to palliative care (PC) – including children with cancer. Providing Paediatric Palliative Care (PPC) for children with cancer is an ethical imperative with pain relief being recognised as a human right and an important public health consideration, with PPC being essential for reducing suffering in children and families. PPC addresses children’s symptoms and aims to provide comfort even if a cure is not possible. PC for children with cancer is about ensuring that the child and family have the best possible quality of life starting at diagnosis and throughout the disease trajectory regardless of cancer treatment outcomes. Many principles of PPC for children with cancer are similar to those for children with other serious health conditions. These include the following: promotion of quality of life; provision of PC care across the continuum of care (from diagnosis through to bereavement); pain and symptom management; emotional support; social care; spiritual care; good communication with children and family; advance care planning; end-of-life care; and bereavement care. PPC should be provided across the range of care settings, wherever the child and their family need care, by an inter-disciplinary team providing support to the child, their families (including siblings) and other significant others, and consider the financial impact of having a child with cancer. It should not be a last resort, but an essential component of care. In this paper, we provide a brief overview of the integration of PPC into paediatric cancer care through the review of challenges in providing PPC in paediatric oncology, global examples of clinical provision of PPC in paediatric cancer care, a review of global research priorities in this area and examples of global education programmes aimed at improving PPC in paediatric cancer care.

Details

Title
Paediatric palliative care in cancer
Author
Downing, Julia 1 ; Daniels, Alexandra 2 ; McNeil, Michael J 3 ; Ndagire Mariam 4 ; Palat Gayatri 5 ; Rassam Rime S 6 ; Baker, Justin N 7 

 International Children’s Palliative Care Network (ICPCN), BS1 2NT Bristol, UK, International Children’s Palliative Care Network (ICPCN), Durban 3624, South Africa, Makerere/Mulago Palliative Care Unit (MMPCU), Kampala, Uganda 
 International Children’s Palliative Care Network (ICPCN), BS1 2NT Bristol, UK, International Children’s Palliative Care Network (ICPCN), Durban 3624, South Africa 
 St. Jude Global Palliative Care Program, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 38105, USA 
 Uganda Cancer Institute, Kampala, Uganda 
 International Children’s Palliative Care Network (ICPCN), BS1 2NT Bristol, UK, International Children’s Palliative Care Network (ICPCN), Durban 3624, South Africa, MNJ Institute of Oncology and Regional Cancer Centre, Hyderabad 500004, Andhra Pradesh, India, Two Worlds Cancer Collaboration, North Vancouver, BC V7H 2Y8, Canada 
 St. Jude Global Nursing, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 38105, USA 
 International Children’s Palliative Care Network (ICPCN), BS1 2NT Bristol, UK, International Children’s Palliative Care Network (ICPCN), Durban 3624, South Africa, St. Jude Global Palliative Care Program, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 38105, USA, Division of Quality of Life and Pediatric Palliative Care, Lucille Packard/Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA 94305, USA 
University/institution
U.S. National Institutes of Health/National Library of Medicine
Publication year
2024
Publication date
2024
Publisher
Cancer Intelligence
e-ISSN
17546605
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3204277120
Copyright
© the authors; licensee ecancermedicalscience. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.