Pediatric oncology: diagnosis as stigma in parents’ opinion

The problem of pediatric oncology is central to the structure of the problems of world clinical medicine, while the improvement of oncological care for children at the present stage is associated not only with early diagnosis, successes in the treatment of oncopathologies of different etiologies, the introduction and dissemination of high-tech medical care, the expansion of rehabilitation measures – but also with the development of accounting systems (oncology registers), the growth of research aimed at identifying cancer risk factors in the child population, as well as the role of social agents (family, social environment, school, etc.) in maintaining social activity and overcoming the stigma of children suffering from cancer at the stage of detection, therapy and rehabilitation.

The author, based on the results of a medical and sociological survey of parents of children with an oncological diagnosis, notes the prevalence of negatively labeling images of the disease in the structure of respondents’ associative ideas about the problem of pediatric oncology. Taking into account that the diagnosis of the child often acts as a trigger and predictor of the formation of self-stigma practices in parents, the author points out the need to improve measures of psychological and social support for parents of cancer children, as well as to expand the vectors of information work with the population to increase tolerance to children with oncopathology and their families.