The use of conventional and novel therapeutics to treat children with advanced cancer leads to burdensome physical and psychological symptoms. Advanced cancer is metastatic upon initial diagnosis, relapsed, progressed, or refractory to treatment, resulting in an uncertain and prolonged disease course. Symptom burden and associated suffering are amplified for these children due to disease burden, intense therapy, and often lengthy treatment. Symptom patterns (trajectories) have been identified in children diagnosed with early-stage cancer, but research characterizing symptom patterns over time in the understudied patient population of children with advanced cancer is sparse.
