Allowing Relationships to Unfold: Consult Reason and Topics Discussed in Initial and Subsequent Palliative Care Visits Among Children Who Died From Relapsed/Refractory Cancer.

Children with relapsed/refractory cancer have a myriad of palliative care needs. While pediatric oncology clinicians meet many of these needs, studies suggest that these children often have distressing symptoms and that families feel unprepared for their child's end-of-life (EOL). Oncology clinicians cite barriers to pediatric palliative care (PPC) consultation, including concerns that PPC teams will upset families with EOL discussions.

Global Neuroblastoma Network: An international multidisciplinary neuroblastoma tumor board for resource-limited countries.

Background: Tumor boards are part of standard care of patients with complex cancers, but appropriate multidisciplinary expertise and infrastructure are often not available in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) for pediatric cancers, such as neuroblastoma. Our goal was to review results of a Global Neuroblastoma Network (GNN) tumor board accessible to LMIC.

Methods: De-identified clinical cases presented via internet conference during a weekly GNN virtual tumor board from 2010 through 2020 were evaluated in a standardized format, including diagnostic imaging, pathology, therapy information, resource limitations, and questions for discussion.

Development and Implementation of a Clinician-Facing Prognostic Communication Tool for Patients With COVID-19 and Critical Illness.

Effective prognostication for a novel disease presents significant challenges, especially given the stress induced during a pandemic. We developed a point-of-care tool to summarize outcome data for critically ill patients with COVID-19 and help guide clinicians through a thoughtful prognostication process. Two authors reviewed studies of outcomes of patients with critical illness due to COVID-19 and created a visual infographic tool based on available data.

Insurance impacts survival for children, adolescents, and young adults with bone and soft tissue sarcomas.

Background: While racial/ethnic survival disparities have been described in pediatric oncology, the impact of income has not been extensively explored. We analyzed how public insurance influences 5-year overall survival (OS) in young patients with sarcomas.

Methods: The University of California San Francisco Cancer Registry was used to identify patients aged 0-39 diagnosed with bone or soft tissue sarcomas between 2000 and 2015.