The psychosocial impact of childhood cancer diagnosis

Abstract

The childhood cancer is a disease that brings intense changes to children and their families, affecting their routine and generating deep suffering. Thus, the article presented, aims to describe the impact that the diagnosis of childhood cancer has on both the child and they family, identifying the behavior of families, the ways in which they deal with the diagnosis and relating the impact of the pathology on the daily lives of families. Unlike cancer in adults, childhood cancer is generally not linked to lifestyle habits but involves cells of the blood system and supporting tissues, arising, in many cases, from embryonic cells. Although childhood cancer cells tend to respond well to treatment, the disease is still the main cause of death among children and adolescents aged one to nineteen (INCA, 2022). In the early stages, the child may not present apparent symptoms, which makes early diagnosis difficult – a crucial role played by the pediatrician, with a detailed anamnesis and careful physical examination. In addition to the medical challenges, a cancer diagnosis imposes limitations on a child's daily life and emotionally burdens the main caregiver, who often must leave work, facing financial difficulties and health problems, such as high blood pressure and depression. The family structure, although shaken, can be strengthened in this process, with parents looking for ways to guarantee the child's well-being. In this context, nurses play a fundamental role in offering support and guidance, helping to alleviate the emotional burden and providing essential support. This is a narrative bibliographic article of an exploratory-descriptive nature. The data search was carried out on the Virtual Health Library (VHL) data portal, using as bibliographic data the Online Medical Literature Search and Analysis System (Medline), Latin American Literature in Health Sciences (Lilacs), Base of Nursing Data - BDENF (VHL, 2020), Scielo and Google Scholar.