Pediatric Intensive Care Unit admission criteria for haematooncological patients: a basis for clinical guidelines implementation

Abstract

Cancer remains a major death cause in children, though outcomes have considerably improved over the past decades (1-3). Outcomes for children diagnosed with cancer have changed since ’70 from 80% mortality to 80% survival (2); while children with solid tumors 5-year survival has been reported as 67%, cure rates for childhood leukemia now approach 90% [4-5). Moreover, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) indications are still expanding for both malignant and non-malignant diseases.