New guidelines to improve quality of life for kids following cancer
Up to 80 percent of children treated for brain cancer or leukaemia go on to develop communication problems from their cancer and lifesaving treatment.
Some children don鈥檛 develop problems until months or even years after their cancer treatment but if they are left untreated social and personal relationships, schooling and career prospects can be severely impacted. Some children also experience trouble with swallowing and eating that can prove life-threatening.
In a world-first, new NHMRC endorsed guidelines provide recommendations to ensure that children are provided follow up care for communication and swallowing until adolescence and that health professionals and families are more aware of these issues.
鈥淭he incidence of childhood brain cancer and leukaemia is rising, but thankfully so too are the survival rates due to advances in medical care and treatments,鈥� said Dr Kimberley Docking, Director of the NeuroKids Research Laboratory in the University of Sydney鈥檚 Faculty of Medicine and Health and Chair of the Guideline Development Committee.
鈥淪o, we have this 鈥榳onderful problem鈥� of being able to help support children who now have their whole lives ahead of them but who also have a high chance of experiencing communication and swallowing disorders as a result of their cancer and their very necessary cancer treatment.鈥�
Dr Docking鈥檚 twenty years of research in this field with colleagues at the University of Sydney has driven the development of the Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Communication and Swallowing in Children Diagnosed with Childhood Brain Cancer or Leukaemia.
Clinical practice guidelines are statements that draw on the latest research to make recommendations to optimise patient care and assist health care practitioners to make informed decisions about appropriate care.
Dr Luciano Dalla-Pozza,聽 Director of Cancer Centre for Children, Westmead said the new guideline was proactive in looking at the needs of future patients by learning from the past.
鈥淲e鈥檝e seen the cancer cure rate rise but this has come at a cost. The cost that patients pay is the complications or side effects from the tumour, from therapy and from surgery that they carry into adulthood. We鈥檝e seen that we can do better and help these children reach their full potential and have good social interactions with their peers, good relationships and good mental health.鈥�
鈥淭his is extraordinarily important on a personal level so they can be who they want to be.鈥�
Key recommendations
The new guideline aims to ensure children are monitored up until adolescence and receive the treatment they need
They are translated into six languages and hinge on two key recommendations:
- Communication assessment and intervention should be offered to children diagnosed with childhood brain tumour or leukaemia
- Swallowing assessment and management should be offered to children diagnosed with childhood brain tumour or leukaemia
Dr Docking, who is also a research fellow with the Sydney Children鈥檚 Hospitals Network, said research shows that with the right speech pathology support the majority of kids go on to regain function and improve their skills.
鈥淢y goal is to ensure that all families know to ask the right questions, to have their children鈥檚 needs assessed early and monitored long-term.鈥�
The development of the guideline was led by a steering committee chaired by Dr Docking in partnership with academics and clinicians from the University of Sydney, Murdoch Children鈥檚 Research Institute, University of Melbourne, Cancer Centre for Children and Kids Rehab unit at The Children鈥檚 Hospital at Westmead, Behavioural Sciences Unit, Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children鈥檚 Hospital, University of New South Wales, and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and Universit茅 Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in Belgium.
Declaration: The Cancer Institute NSW funded the original grant that led to the development of the guideline.
