Main topics related to the disease, death, and dying in communication between parents and their adolescent children with incurable cancer.

OBJECTIVES The article focuses on main topics related to disease, death, and dying in communication between parents and their adolescent children with this diagnosis. METHODS We conducted qualitative research comprising 13 interviews with parents who lost their adolescent child to cancer. We used a semi-structured interview and interpretative phenomenological analysis. RESULTS Results introduced 6 basic topics: mutual protection, openness in the communication about cancer and death, making treatment decisions together, talks at the time of passing, hope, and spiritual experience. CONCLUSION Adolescents appreciate age-appropriate, open communication about their disease. Talking about the disease and its prognosis appears to be the way from mutual protection to open truthfulness. Openness also includes the participation of adolescents in further treatment. For some parents, it makes sense to constantly protect the child from the fact of death. Caregivers should support discussions about death between parents and their terminally ill adolescent children and accept individual decisions to talk about death (Tab. 1, Ref. 25).