Screening tool improves kids' cancer symptoms

While advances in childhood cancer treatments have drastically improved survival rates over the years, the reality is that there are side effects that profoundly impact children’s quality of life, both during treatment and long after. In addition to nausea and pain, children can experience symptoms affecting their mental health and wellbeing, like anger and depression. Clinicians certainly know about these side effects but they haven’t had a successful standardized tool to collect this information—until now. Clinical pharmacist Lee Dupuis and Lillian Sung, pediatric oncologist at SickKids, have developed a symptom screening tool for children with cancer and developing care pathways—Symptom Screening in Pediatrics Tool (SSPedi, pronounced “speedy”)—to help clinicians manage those symptoms. They recently published research demonstrating that the tool reduces symptom burden in children.Read: Some cancer patients may forgo care due to high treatment-related costs: report“With the success of treatments, now we can think about making these treatments kinder, whether through refining treatment or through providing better supportive care that addresses what kids actually need and want,” says Dupuis who is a professor at the University of Toronto’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and senior associate scientist and clinical pharmacist at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids).SSPedi allows children to report how bothered they are by 15 common symptoms of cancer and treatment, ranging from physical symptoms like nausea and diarrhea to emotional symptoms like anger and depression. Children report their level of bother for each symptom that day or the previous day on a scale ranging from “not at all bothered” to “extremely bothered.”In one large trial involving 20 U.S. cancer centres, published in JAMA, half of the centres used SSPedi to report symptoms and SPARK to share scores with the clinical team, while half of the centres provided usual care. Children who reported their symptoms three times a week for eight weeks had significantly reduced symptom burden compared to those who received usual care.Read: Six new drug indications pharmacists and physicians should know aboutIn a smaller trial in Canadian centres over a shorter period of time, published in JAMA Pediatrics, they found that reporting symptoms daily for five days helped to improve their symptom scores.“By identifying what bothers kids, we can provide healthcare professionals with the tools to best manage those symptoms—an extraordinarily powerful combination,” says Dupuis.For the full story go to University of Toronto.

Screening tool improves kids' cancer symptoms

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