OnCo
ideasIdea

A paediatric palliative care team in every childhood cancer unit

Children with cancer, and their families, need symptom relief and support from diagnosis, not only at the end. Every children's cancer unit should have a palliative team, and most in poorer countries have none.

Paediatric palliative care improves symptom control and family outcomes and does not shorten life, yet most childhood cancer units globally lack a dedicated team, and referral is often late. Integrating a small team (nurse, doctor with training, psychosocial support) into every paediatric oncology unit, with early involvement for high-risk diagnoses, is feasible at modest cost and is a stated aim of the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer.

Hypothesis
Units with an integrated paediatric palliative team will improve parent-reported symptom control and reduce intensive interventions in the last week of life, with no reduction in curative-intent treatment completion.
Rationale
Adult early palliative care evidence and paediatric cohort studies point the same direction; the gap is workforce and funding.
What would test it
Implementation in 20 units across income levels with parent-reported outcomes, end-of-life care intensity, and staff wellbeing as endpoints.
Maturity
early clinical
Who has to act
philanthropy
Cost to try
Medium ($1M to $50M)
Years to first evidence
3
Bottlenecks it attacks

Connected

5top

Pages like this

not linked directly; found by shared links