Legacy- making in palliative care of pediatric cancer

Cancer is one of the most important chronic diseases of children in the world, and a significant number of them die every year. Palliative care interventions can help the child and family to dealing with life-threatening conditions. Legacy-making is one of the methods of palliative care in seriously ill children whose death is predictable.  The purpose of this study is investigating the legacy-making as a component of palliative care in pediatric cancer based on recent research and literatures in Iran and other countries.

in this narrative review, we first searched key words palliative care, legacy making, legacy building and pediatric cancer both in English and Persian in various and valid databases including: Google scholar, PubMed, proQuest, SID, MAGIRAN, IRANdoc, IRANMEDEX, and ELSEVIER published between 2000 -2018. Then articles that were directly or indirectly related to the title of the article separated. Then articles with full text were assessed.

After a thorough and targeted study of the articles, legacy in pediatric palliative cancer was categorized in different dimensions: the types of Legacy-making in pediatric cancer palliative care, the benefits of Legacy-making in pediatric cancer palliative care, the potential negative dimensions of Legacy-making in Palliative care for children, Legacy-making in pediatric palliative care in Iran and other countries, Principles and the gaps of legacy in pediatric palliative care

Legacy-making is a simple and time-efficient intervention in pediatric cancer palliative care. It can help the child and family to dealing with pre and post-death conditions. But more research is needed to assess the positive and negative legacy making effects in children.