Palliative care in children with cancer

Palliative care for children emphasizes on physical, phycosocial and spiritual care. It aims to improve quality of life for patients by providing holistic care and for them and their families during illness and bereavement. There is an increasing need for pediatric health care providers who should be able to effectively cure or control health care problems of children with cancer. This need comes out from the recent publication of the World Health Organization (WHO) article "Pain Relief and Palliative care for children with cancer". It suggests that the principles of pain and palliative care should be the major part of the care of any child with cancer. According to a recent survey many children have experienced physical and spiritual suffering during the last month of their life. Parents wanted to be actively involved in order to help but they reported that their children had unrelieved pain life, children and distressing symptoms.

Keywords: Palliative care, quality of life, children