Positive Impact of Organized Physical Exercise on Quality of Life and Fatigue in Children and Adolescents With Cancer.

Cancer and its treatment can cause serious health issues that impair physical and mental well-being in children and adolescents. Exercise may be a valid strategy for managing some symptoms, including fatigue. In the light of our experience, we provide further justification for including exercise as part of routine childhood cancer care.

A case series analysing patients with dental anxiety: a patient-centered model based on psychological profiling.

Anxiety and distress can jeopardize dental care experience of patients and may affect the clinical result. Although a wide range of sedation and analgesia techniques are currently available to relieve distress and pain during dental procedures, operative models to choose the most effective sedation-analgesic strategies are still insufficient. This case series proposes a patient-centered model to optimize patients' cooperation during dental care delivery.

Experiencing Social Isolation (Even in the Era of COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown): Teachings Through Arts from Adolescents with Cancer.

The article describes how adolescents with cancer utilized an artistic approach to discuss about their social isolation caused by disease and treatment. With the help of professionals, 17 young patients closed in their isolation room described their ideal room (a bit real, a bit of a fantasy place) producing texts and images, subsequently put together into a book. In these days when people are forced to social isolation by the lockdown related to corovavirus disease 2019 pandemic, young patients teach us meaningful life lessons: how social confinement can become an opportunity to focus on yourself, and what is really important in life.

Age-appropriate multidisciplinary approach to young children with cancer undergoing radiotherapy: The SIESTA procedure.

A standardized multidisciplinary step-by-step approach to improve the compliance of young (or difficult) children having to undergo radiotherapy was described and applied. The procedure is called SIESTA, which stands for show-imagination-evaluation-support-treatment-anesthesia. Preliminary assessments suggest that the SIESTA approach was effective: the rate of young patients (≤6 years) requiring anesthesia decreased from 27% (14/52 cases) in 2011-2012 (before the procedure was adopted) to 13% (6/46) in 2018.

Adolescents with Terminal Cancer: Making Good Use of Illusions.

The terminal stage of disease in teenagers is extremely complex to manage. In this study, we share some stories of terminally ill adolescent patients who made use of illusion as a way to overcome their anguish in their final stages of illness. These experiences show how young patients can cope better with terminal illness by resorting to a nonrational and fictional dimension that can serve them as a psychological compromise, helping them tolerate their real everyday life by suspending their critical senses for a while.

A New Video Tumorial by Young Cancer Patients Dedicated to COVID-19 Pandemic and Lockdown.

After the video tutorials created a few months ago and published in the , Milan's Youth Project young cancer patients decided to record another video: a "special issue" dedicated to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. The video addresses critical issues of the social isolation imposed by the lockdown and the fear the patients face in addition to their actual worries related to the disease. When many people across the world are forced to social distance for the imposed lockdown, the positive attitude and the advice of young cancer patients who experience social isolation regularly may be of great support and a fine example.

Tumorial: Video Tutorials Produced by Young Patients on the Youth Project to Voice Their Experiences.

Adolescent and young adult patients of the Milan's Youth Project developed a new communication project aimed at young people with cancer: in a series of video tutorials called Tumorial, they talk about their day-to-day experiences, offering "survival tricks" to their peers. The project was developed during group meetings taking place every week in a dedicated room near the ward. Each meeting focused on a single topic and was led by the patients themselves, who talked about their experiences; staff members moderated the discussion and took notes, which was used as script for a video, recorded by one patient as a spokesperson.

How young patients with cancer perceive the COVID-19 (coronavirus) epidemic in Milan, Italy: Is there room for other fears?

The rapid spread of coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic in Italy, in particular in the Milan focal point, required drastic measures and led to panic in the population. While in our center we did not change our approach to the treatment of our young patients with cancer, we developed a qualitative survey to assess their perception of the risk and level of stress. The survey showed that a relatively large proportion of young patients felt personally at risk of severe complications.

Cannabinoids use in adolescents and young adults with cancer: a single-center survey.

Objective: To present an investigation into the intake of cannabinoids in a population of adolescents and young adults with cancer.

Methods: Sixty-six patients took part in the research: 27 reported having used cannabinoids, 21 before diagnosis; among the latter, 10 increased use during treatment.

Results: Benefits were reported by 19% of responders regarding anxiety control, 24% for nausea, 29% for pain control and improvement of sleep, and 48% for appetite improvement.

[Healing magic. Illusionistic techniques supporting communication and relationship between children and adolescents.].

In the training of the doctors, even specialists, training courses are generally not available for communication and for the relationship with patients in developmental age. Some techniques such as illusionistic techniques are increasingly described in the scientific literature as tools that can be used in the areas of care and rehabilitation. In this work, clinical experiences are presented on the use of illusionism techniques in clinical consultation with patients suffering from organic pathologies, based on a review of the scientific literature.

Investigating sexuality in adolescents with cancer: patients talk of their experiences.

The aim of the present study is to understand which areas of sexuality were regarded as most important and/or problematic among adolescents with cancer. A questionnaire was administered to adolescent and young adult patients who had been receiving treatments at the Pediatric Oncology Unit of our Institution, for at least 2 months, and those in follow-up who had completed their treatments no more than two years previously. The questionnaire was devised to investigate patients' experiences in various areas, i.

Spirituality and Sustaining Hope in Adolescents with Cancer: The Patients' View.

The trauma of the diagnosis of cancer during adolescence may affect the young people's spiritual sphere. Projects aiming to the global care of adolescents with cancer should consider also their spiritual needs: at our center, the dedicated multidisciplinary team of professionals includes a chaplain with a specific training. This article describes, throughout the patients' dialogs, how a chaplain can help patients to give voice to their emotions and thoughts about their sense of life and illness.

What Do We Know About the Do-It-Yourself Diets of Patients in Our Care?

This pilot study aimed to investigate dietary changes introduced after being diagnosed with cancer in a sample of 60 consecutive children and adolescents on the basis of a self-report questionnaire. The study showed that 53% of patients changed their diet, usually "to combat the tumor" (in 47% of cases). In 1 in 2 of these cases, the health care staff were not informed about any changes.

Loop: there's no going back: A Graphic Novel by Adolescent Cancer Patients on the Youth Project in Milan.

The present paper describes the story of the development of a graphic novel-a story about superheroes-written by adolescent cancer patients on the Youth Project at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori in Milan (Italy). Nineteen patients from fifteen to twenty-five years old (fifteen receiving treatment for their cancer, four who had recently completed their treatments) participated in a four month creative writing laboratory managed by a professional teacher. The output from the writing laboratory was a written text that was used as the script for a graphic novel drawn by professional cartoonists and working together with the patients.

Diary of a journey to a faraway galaxy.

This article describes a brief account written by a girl treated with chemotherapy and surgery for an ovarian germ cell tumor. The brief novel was conceived in the context of the Youth Project of Milan, dedicated to helping adolescent and young adult cancer patients socialize and express themselves through group activities that focus on art and creativity. It describes the scenery of a new galaxy and is replete with images and metaphors that recall the experience of receiving anticancer treatment, touching on emotional themes including desire, isolation, fear, and hope.

[Continuity and school reentry support of patients with serious diseases: experiences in pediatric oncology.].

Dealing with a serious illness always implies, and particularly for a child, important physical and psychological stresses. If on the one hand, the adult could have adaption's resources which allow him to deal with the illness's implications, on the other hand, for a child, the interference of the disease with growing steps may cause serious problems. For this reason, the clinicians and the family have to support the educational and social continuity of the child's interactions.

"Summer is you": Adolescents and young adults with cancer sing about their desire for summer.

Creative spirit and art are used as part of the Youth Project in Milan, a program dedicated to adolescents and young adults (AYA) with cancer. The "Summer is you" music project involved 45 patients (15-26 years old): with professional help, the patients wrote music and lyrics, sang their song, and recorded a video clip, sharing with us not only their hopes and fears, but also their romantic encounters and their urge to travel (https://youtu.be/Q5FSCMUVg0E).

"What shall I do when I grow up?" Adolescents with cancer on the Youth Project in Milan play with their imagination and photography.

Introduction: Adolescents diagnosed with cancer have to temporarily stop pursuing several vital needs and making plans for the future. The Youth Project in Milan, Italy, focuses on such issues in young cancer patients' personal lives. Uncertainty about the future had already emerged in several artistic projects designed to help these patients voice their emotions.

[Conflict and divorce management in the field of pediatric care. Experience in pediatric oncology.].

Divorces and separations have become more frequent over the last 20 years and for this reason they are issues of great importance with possible effects on medical treatments. Conflicts between the adults frequently affect the children involved in the separation of their parents. If, on the one hand, the parental conflict is a hard and distressing experience for the whole family, on the other hand this situation gets even more complicated if a child is affected by a serious illness.

[About the good use of illusions in oncology. End-of-life experiences and communications in adolescent patients.].

The issue of quality of life, particularly of patients affected by cancer, is very controversial, especially with adolescent patients who have no prospects of recovery. This article aims to describe the psychological mechanisms, which affect teenage patients with terminal cancer, in order to allow the best quality of life possible. The adaptation of teenager patients suffering from terminal illnesses is also related to other non-medical issues such as psychological, legal and ethical considerations.

Proper use of social media by health operators in the pediatric oncohematological setting: Consensus statement from the Italian Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Association (AIEOP).

Social media are powerful means of communication that can also have an important role in the healthcare sector. They are sometimes seen with diffidence in the healthcare setting, partly because they risk blurring professional boundaries. This issue is particularly relevant to relations between caregivers and adolescent patients.

Dreams and illusions in adolescents with terminal cancer.

Being diagnosed with cancer in adolescence generally has important emotional consequences: adolescent cancer patients need to be seen as special cases with particular medical and psychosocial needs. This is especially true when a young patient is faced with a progressive, incurable disease. Herein, we report the story of a 17-year-old girl with a metastatic refractory soft tissue sarcoma who tells her dream to the psychologist of the ward.