Studies In Progress

Palliative Chemotherapy versus Supportive Care alone for End of Life Care in Pediatric Cancer

Investigators & Staff: Lillian Sung, Hilary Llewellyn-Thomas, Eric Bouffet, Mark L. Greenberg, Sylvain Baruchel, Janet Gammon, Michael Capra, Jocelyne Volpe, Maru Barrera, Pamela Hinds, Deborah Tomlinson

Decision-making at end-of-life is extremely difficult for most families and healthcare professionals. For children with cancer who die, we know very little about how parents make decisions, what factors influence these decisions and whether we can make this process easier for families. Improvement of shared decision-making and provision of decision support for families is critically important, as this will not only improve the quality of, and satisfaction with care for families, but may also facilitate the bereavement process.
We plan to describe preferences for chemotherapy relative to supportive care alone for children receiving palliative care.

Funding Agency

This research is supported by the Canadian Cancer Society.
(2005-2008) $131, 000.00

Summary

Decision-making at end-of-life is extremely difficult for most families and healthcare professionals. For children with cancer who die, we know very little about how parents make decisions, what factors influence these decisions and whether we can make this process easier for families. Improvement of shared decision-making and provision of decision support for families is critically important, as this will not only improve the quality of, and satisfaction with care for families, but may also facilitate the bereavement process.

We plan to describe preferences for chemotherapy relative to supportive care alone for children receiving palliative care. We also plan to determine whether the threshold technique (a technique used to present treatment options and reveal preferences) is considered useful as a decision-aid in this setting, whether parents and healthcare professionals have similar preferences for chemotherapy, and factors associated with stronger preference for palliative chemotherapy. This research represents an incremental step in a program to understand and improve shared decision-making for families of children with cancer receiving palliative care. We have assembled the best team of individuals to undertake this research, with tremendous experience in pediatric cancer palliative care research. In addition, our team developed the threshold technique, assessed its usefulness in many populations, and recently demonstrated its usefulness in pediatric cancer patients outside of the palliative setting

What we Learned

In progress.

What’s Next

In progress.

References

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