Children with cancer who receive PC experience a high burden of intensive treatments and often die in inpatient intensive care settings. Delayed PC involvement is associated with increased odds of dying in the intensive care unit. Prospective investigation of early PC involvement in children with high-risk cancer is needed to better understand potential impacts on cost-effectiveness, quality of life, and delivery of goal concordant care.

Hematologic malignancy, cancer-directed therapy at the end of life, and delayed documentation of advance directives are associated with late PC involvement in children who died of cancer. Identification of these variables affords opportunities to study targeted interventions to enhance access to earlier PC resources and services for children with high-risk cancer and their families.

Children with cancer who die in high-acuity inpatient settings often experience a high burden of intensive therapy at the end of life. Strategies to identify patients at higher risk of dying in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) have not been explored previously. This study finds that certain variables may predict PICU death for pediatric palliative oncology patients, including delayed palliative care involvement. Preemptive identification of patients at risk for PICU death affords opportunities to study the effects of earlier palliative care integration and increased discussions around preferred location of death on end-of-life outcomes for children with cancer and their families.