Embedded Model of Integrated Paediatric Palliative Care in Paediatric Oncology: Development and Testing its Effectiveness. (EMANCIPATION Study)

Annually world-wide 300,000 children are detected with cancer, 90% of them live in low and middle-income countries. Children in low-income countries have a cure rate of 30-50%.  Around 4.2 million children need palliative care in India, but only small percentage of children are referred and often referred late. Palliative care in a paediatric oncology setting is known to improve pain, symptoms, quality of life and end of life support. According to the studies conducted by Brock 2021, Farooki 2021 and Falk 2021 (all USA), the embedded paediatric palliative oncology models demonstrated a higher number of children accessing palliative care, longer stay with the palliative care service before death, and fewer days in the hospital during the last three months of their lives and enabled better acceptance of paediatric palliative care by the paediatric oncologists. However, this model is never tested outside of United States and considering the dismal rate of palliative care access to children in India (<0.5%), the results of this study might influence future policy and practice. The key expected outcome is to identify the palliative care needs in children with cancer in a paediatric oncology care setting.