Clinical Practice Guideline: Palliative Care for Children and Adolescents With Cancer

Background

Despite recent advances in pediatric oncology, 15% of children and adolescents with cancer in Germany (approx. 350 per year) die of their disease. Even when the unfavorable prognosis is clear early on, patients often do not receive palliative care until shortly before death when the symptom burden is high. This causes unnecessary distress for everyone involved.