Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 11, 2026
Pre-clinical Evaluation of Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors for Treatment of Acute Leukemia
Published on: September 18, 2013
A review of symptom screening tools in pediatric cancer patients
Cathy OʼSullivan1, L Lee Dupuis, Lillian Sung
1aProgram in Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children, Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning bDepartment of Pharmacy, The Hospital for Sick Children cLeslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto dDivision of Haematology/Oncology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Insights
Pediatric cancer patients face many symptoms during chemotherapy. While new symptom assessment tools exist, they are not yet guiding patient management or improving outcomes in clinical practice.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Oncology
- Symptom Management
- Clinical Practice
Background:
- Children undergoing chemotherapy often experience a significant symptom burden.
- Effective symptom assessment is crucial for improving quality of life in pediatric cancer patients.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify and characterize symptom assessment tools used in pediatric cancer patients within the last year.
- To evaluate the appropriateness of these tools for symptom screening and their impact on patient management.
- To inform future research directions in pediatric oncology symptom assessment.
Main Methods:
- A systematic review of the literature published in the past year was conducted.
- Six distinct symptom screening or assessment tools were identified across ten studies.
- Characteristics of the identified instruments, including item count, were described.
Main Results:
- Four of the six identified instruments comprised 30 or more items.
- Despite the availability of these tools, patient management was not altered based on identified symptoms in any of the reviewed studies.
- Symptom assessment remains an active research area but lacks integration into clinical decision-making.
Conclusions:
- Current symptom assessment tools in pediatric oncology are not effectively guiding symptom management.
- Future research should prioritize the implementation of active symptom screening in clinical practice to improve patient outcomes.
- Electronic symptom screening tools show promise for enhancing the feasibility of routine symptom assessment.
Purpose Of Review:
Children receiving chemotherapy experience a high burden of symptoms. The purposes of this review were to identify symptom assessment tools used in pediatric cancer patients published in the last year; describe the characteristics of the identified tools; and evaluate their appropriateness for symptom screening and to alter patient management.
Recent Findings:
We identified six different symptom screening or assessment tools used across 10 studies in the past year. Four instruments contained 30 or more items. Patient management was not altered on the basis of identified symptoms in any of these studies.
Summary:
Symptom assessment in pediatric oncology continues to be an active area of study but the available instruments are not yet used to guide symptom management. Future research should focus on implementing active and ongoing symptom screening into clinical practice and determining if active symptom screening improves patient outcomes. Electronic symptom screening tools may improve the feasibility of incorporating symptom screening tools into routine practice.
