Pediatrics Palliative Care in Oncology Patients Single Tertiary Center Experience

Introduction: Pediatric palliative care enhances the quality of life for children with life-threatening conditions through symptom management, psychosocial support, and assistance in medical decisionmaking.Early referrals, improve end-of-life care, reduce hospitalizations, and enhance family preparedness.Referral drivers include symptom management and counseling needs, with cultural factors and oncologists' familiarity with PPC influencing its implementation.The aim was to evaluate the utilization and outcomes of PPC services in the pediatric oncology department.Methodology: This retrospective chart review study was conducted at King Abdullah Specialized Children's Hospital.It analyzed 55 PPC consultations for pediatric oncology patients from 2018 to 2023.Results: A total of 55 pediatric oncology patients were included, with an almost equal gender distribution (females:50.9%,males:49.1%; mean age: 7.5 years).PPC referrals were prompted by hematologic malignancies (27.3%),solid tumors (36.4%), and CNS tumors (40.0%).Referrals peaked in 2018 (29.4%) and 2022 (28.9%) for CNS/solid tumors but were consistently lower for hematologic malignancies (10.0%-4.9%).The primary referral reasons included disease progression (87.0%) and relapse (54.5%).Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation was performed in 25.5% of cases.Pain management was the most common trigger for PPC referrals (69.0%), with 80.0% of patients receiving morphine.