MECC regional initiative in pediatric palliative care: Middle Eastern course on pain management.

In all the major medical centers throughout the Middle East, there is a functioning pediatric hematology oncology department. In almost all countries, opioids such as morphine, oxycodone, and fentanyl are available. Pediatric palliative care services are still in their infancy and await further recognition and development. Unfortunately, there are still countries in the Middle East where children with cancer are diagnosed when the disease is already at stage III or IV, when the only option left is palliation. To decrease the incidence of late presentation, more effort is needed concerning public awareness, and concomitantly, an urgent need to develop hospital-based and community-based palliative and supportive care services. The initial step in this direction would involve more training of health care providers: Pediatricians, Pediatric Oncologists, Oncology Nurses, and Social Workers with updated pharmacological and nonpharmacological modalities of treatment.