Information for parents: an allowance for coping with childhood cancer

Abstract

The number of cancer cases has increased in recent decades, becoming a worldwide public health problem, due to the high incidence and mortality, and its implications on the quality of life of the subject and his family. Pediatric cancers present particularities in relation to tumors that affect adults, such as different primary sites and distinct histological origin, in addition to a shorter latency period, which implies a faster growth and greater capacity of invasion of adjacent tissues. However, they respond better to chemotherapy. The aim of this study was to identify how parents have received information related to cancer and to analyze how they influenced the family in facing the child’s disease. The applied method was a descriptive qualitative research, carried out with 19 parents of children undergoing chemotherapy in a blood donation center in Paraná. The data collection took place in the months of July and August of 2014 through a semi-structured interview. The Thematic Content Analysis was adopted for data analysis. Among the perceptions of the parents about the enlightenment of the disease, three themes emerged: communication process of diagnosis and forms of treatment; information: some received, others obtained; information as a care allowance. The research revealed the need to recognize the child-family dyad as a patient so that parents can obtain concrete information about the diagnosis and treatment in order to use them as a subsidy for coping and empowerment.