A Palliative Care Initiative in Dokuz Eylul University Hospital

Turkey is among the countries with only "capacity building activity" in terms of palliative care development according to the mapping levels reported by the International Observatory on End of Life Care (http://www.eolc-observatory.net/global/pdf/world_map.pdf). Palliative care units are lacking even in major hospitals. Although some medical oncologists and pain specialists have been providing pain control and symptom relief to some extend, all these interventions remain a fragmented approach to care since there are no palliative care programs. Establishing palliative care services should be a priority in the development of comprehensive cancer care, particularly in a country where more than 60% of the cancer patients present with advanced stage disease. Like all the other university hospitals in the country, palliative care services have not been established so far in Dokuz Eylul University Hospital for several reasons although almost all the modern cancer treatment modalities have been provided to cancer patients. A group of health professionals have recently started a palliative care initiative in the hospital with an aim to raise awareness and to implement basic palliative care interventions to the current cancer care. This paper aims to tell the story of how this initiative get started and which step were taken so far

Isolated Hemihyperplasia in an Infant: An Overlooked Sign for Wilms Tumor Development

Background: Children with overgrowth syndromes including isolated hemihyperplasia have an increased risk for developing embryonal tumors, particularly Wilms’ tumor and hepatoblastoma. Screening with sonography has been suggested as a method of identifying these tumors while they are still at an early stage. Case Presentation: We describe an infant diagnosed with Wilms tumor in whom isolated hemihyperplasia had been overlooked by several physicians prior to the tumor diagnosis. Conclusion: We recommend tumor surveillance for all patients with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome and isolated hemihyperplasia at least for the first six years of life since full molecular characterization of every patient is not readily available

The Effect of Fatigue-Related Education on Pediatric Oncology Patients' Fatigue and Quality of Life

The identification of cancer-related fatigue as a clinical problem in pediatric oncology is an important phenomenon, and there are limited number of studies about raising the awareness of pediatric oncology patients and their parents. Fatigue-related education for patients and their parents before and during cancer treatment reduces the fatigue levels of patients. This study aims to analyze the effect of fatigue-related education for pediatric oncology patients aged 7-12 and their parents on their fatigue and quality of life. This study was conducted with 80 children with cancer and their parents who were assigned to either the control group (n = 40) or the experimental group (n = 40). The experimental group received a fatigue-related educational program. The data were collected three times: prior to the program, 3 months later, and 6 months afterwards. Multidimensional variance analysis, the Bonferroni adjusted t test and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. A significant difference was found among the experimental and the control group for total mean scores and the mean scores of subdimensions of the Scale for the Assessment of Fatigue-Child Form in terms of the interactions of group, time, and group*time (p < 0.05). Significant differences were found among the experimental and control groups' mean scores on the Scale for the Quality of Life-Child and Parents Form in terms of the interactions of group, time, and group*time (p < 0.05). Fatigue-related education is an effective education model as a way to reduce fatigue and increase the quality of life of children with cancer. The use of fatigue-related education by nurses in pediatric oncology clinics will have positive effects on children and their parents

Nurses' Perceived Barriers to Assessment and Management of Pain in a University Hospital

A self-report questionnaire was answered by 114 nurses working at the internal medicine, oncology, and surgery clinics. The most commonly perceived barriers to pain management were system-related barriers. Lack of psychosocial support services and patient-to-nurse ratio received the highest ratings. Institutional and governmental attempts are needed to increase the number of nurses in the clinics and to establish support services. Nurse-related barriers were less perceived as an obstacle when compared with the other barriers. A small percentage of the nurses agreed that nurses' inadequate knowledge of pain management (10%) and nurses' indifference (8%) were barriers to pain management. Inadequate time for health teaching with patients was agreed on by 65% of the nurses. Most commonly rated physician-related barriers were inadequate assessment of pain and pain relief by doctors (63%) and physicians' indifference (47%). Patients' difficulty with completing pain scales (56%) and consumers not demanding results (53%) were the most commonly reported patient-related barriers. A significant percentage of the participating nurses indicated that they have no idea about patient-related barriers. Regular and continuous pain education programs may help to establish a supportive team spirit between doctors and nurses

The Time to Diagnosis in Childhood Lymphomas and Other Solid Tumors

Background. There are few reports from developing countries on the factors that influence the time to diagnosis (TD) in childhood cancer. The purpose of this study was to investigate the determinants of the TD in Turkish cancer patients. Procedure. A retrospective analysis was performed on 329 children diagnosed with cancer, excluding leukemia. The TD, including parent/patient time and physician time, was defined as the interval between the onset of symptoms and the final diagnosis. Results. The median times for parent/patient, physician, and TD were 3, 28, and 53 days, respectively. For patient in the 1-9 years age group, physician time and TD were significantly shorter than in infants and those over 10 years. The longest median TD was recorded for children with germ cell tumors and retinoblastoma; the shortest was in children with renal tumors. When the first point of contact was a pediatrician, a private hospital or physician's office, a governmental educational hospital or a university hospital physician time was short. The longest TD was noted in patients who first contacted a non-pediatric specialist. The most significant predictors of parent/patient, physician time, and TD were metastases at diagnosis, first medical center, and first health professional contacted, respectively. Conclusions. The TD for childhood lymphomas and solid tumors was related to patient age, tumor type and location, the presence of distance metastases, first health professional, and center contacted. All physicians, especially other specialists seeing pediatric patients, need to be further sensitized to the signs and symptoms of childhood cancer. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2011; 57: 392-397. (C) 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc

Atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor in an infant conceived by in vitro fertilization

Atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor (ATsRT) is a rare tumor and extremely aggressive embryonal neoplasm of the central nervous system. Brain tumors in infant are suggestive of some oncogenic prenatal factors

Aneurysmal bone cyst of rib presenting as a huge chest wall mass.

Gunes D, Mutafoglu-Uysal K, Sarialioglu F, Cakmakci H, Olgun N. Aneurysmal bone cyst of rib presenting as a huge chest wall mass. Turk J Pediatr 2009; 51: 82-85