Firstly, we hope that 2025 will be the year when we finally see the timely integration of palliative care into the care of children and young people with cancer living in Europe! Our group has been quite busy to help achieve this goal, through several projects.
It is important to note that we will once more contribute to the SIOPE 2025 Annual Meeting, hosting a variety of sessions:
1) an educational joint session with SIOPE, around current and future perspectives of clinical research in palliative care in paediatric oncology;
2) a joint session (with Nursing, Psychosocial and CCI-E) about communication with children, young people and families along their journey in paediatric oncology services. We expect this session to be an opportunity to learn about do’s and don’ts related to this delicate theme, and to showcase best practice examples;
3) a general assembly to welcome all our members and debate projects.
In October 2024 we published the results of the ADAPT-E survey. It is a joint work from our SIOPE Working Group and the team at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (which developed the original survey), that was circulated in 2023 - Perceptions of physicians caring for pediatric patients with cancer in Europe: insights into the use of palliative care, its timing, and barriers to early integration – which we invite you to read here. We concluded that physicians caring for children with cancer throughout Europe have a good understanding of what paediatric palliative care is. However, misconceptions persist, requiring educational and capacity-building efforts. Additionally, we found regional differences (Northern/Central vs. Southern/Eastern Europe) in perceived barriers, which must be addressed to ensure equitable access to paediatric palliative care for all European children and young people with cancer.
So, there is still much to be done, but we’re walking the walk and are counting on you, along the way. We hope to meet you in Budapest – for sure there will be plenty of opportunities to engage in one of our sessions!