title: Experience of an adolescent living with and dying of cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To provide a unified description of an adolescent's experience of living with and dying of cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Qualitative analysis using phenomenological methods.
  
  
  METHODS
  Izaak Walton Killam Health Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 15-year-old boy who was diagnosed as having osteosarcoma in 2003 and died of his disease 1 year later.
  
  
  METHODS
  Analysis of his 90-page journal that spanned 3 months just before his death.
  
  
  METHODS
  Identification and clustering of key themes to capture the essence of his experience.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Five main themes that surfaced during analysis of the journal were adolescent development, escape from illness, changing relationships, symptoms, and spirituality.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A single case study can provide valuable information in a field such as pediatric palliative care in which the patient's perspective may be difficult to access or ascertain.
authors.affiliation: Izaak Walton Killam Health Centre and Department of Pediatrics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada. flavelle@dal.ca
authors.forename: Shauna C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Flavelle
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D001293:Attitude to Death; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D018450:Disease Progression; D005195:Family Relations; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012516:Osteosarcoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D019452:Terminally Ill