Children and adolescents who experience cancer: challenges and possibilities - DOI: 10.4025/cienccuidsaude.v8i1.7788

Abstract

Due to the rising cure and survival rates of children and adolescents affected by cancer, interest in survival has increased in different areas of human knowledge. This article reflects on the challenges related to the experience of surviving cancer during childhood-adolescence. Surviving cancer demands the capacity to live with the paradox between acknowledging the condition of being cured and the constant possibility of a relapse. After treatment ends, the child and adolescence carry the burden this experience imposes and which will have a marking effect in their lives. In this sense, both they and their families need help and social support ready to use with a view to a successful life. It is fundamental for health professionals, especially in the nursing area, to make continuous efforts to acknowledge the needs of child and adolescent cancer survivors, so as to create conditions that allow, besides extended survival, a better quality of life.