Parent-Child Interactions During Cancer Treatment-Related Procedures: What is Still Missing?

Abstract

Children being treated for cancer receive a variety of treatment-related procedures, such as lumbar punctures, bone marrow aspirations and port starts. These invasive and painful procedures can negatively influence children with cancer in the short- and long-term run. Parents play important roles in physically and emotionally caring for their child during these procedures and parent-child interactions can significantly influence children’s experiences during painful procedures. The purpose of this editorial was to discuss the impact of parent-child interactions during painful procedures and future research directions through the following aspects: the impact of treatment-related painful procedures in children with cancer, parent-child interactions during cancer treatment-related procedures and observational measures of parent-child interactions during painful procedures.