2021 Volume 58 Issue 3 Pages 263-268
Background: Although a subset of pediatric cancer patients require intensive care (IC), detailed information about these patients has not been well evaluated. The purpose of this study is to clarify whether IC affects the prognosis of pediatric cancer patients.
Methods: We retrospectively analyzed pediatric cancer patients who were admitted to our hospital between November 2003 and December 2017. IC was defined as requiring at least one of the following modalities: mechanical ventilation, inotropic support or renal replacement therapy.
Results: Among 312 pediatric cancer patients, 40 patients (13%) required IC. The IC group frequently received hematopoietic cell transplantation prior to IC (p<0.01) and suffered a relapse (p<0.01) compared with patients who did not require IC (non-IC group). The overall survival (OS) one year after diagnosis was significantly lower in the IC group than in the non-IC group (68% vs. 97%, p<0.01). The main cause of death was disease progression. The prognosis was worse in patients requiring both mechanical ventilation and inotropic support than in patients who required only one of them. In multivariate analysis, IC had an adverse impact on the survival rate of pediatric cancer patients one year after the diagnosis (p<0.01).
Conclusion: The prognosis for pediatric cancer patients requiring IC was poor. Although the main cause of death was disease progression, results suggest that the condition requiring IC adversely affected the prognosis of pediatric cancer patients.
