Often, the children of patients with cancer are the invisible sufferers of the disease and its aftermath. These online resources can help patients talk with their children about a cancer diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis, and their potential impact on the children.

• American Cancer Society: Helping Children When a Family Member Has Cancer (cancer.org/treatment/childrenandcancer/helpingchildrenwhenafamilymemberhascancer). Topics range from dealing with treatment, and what helps, by age of the child, to words to describe cancer and its treatment.
• ASCO’s Cancer.Net section on Family Life (www.cancer.net/coping-and-emotions/communicating-loved-ones). In addition to such topics as parenting while living with cancer and how a child understands cancer, the Family Life section also contains specific advice on talking with your spouse or partner, talking with your teenager, talking with your children, and talking with your grandchildren.
• Marjorie E. Korff Parenting at a Challenging Time Program (mghpact.org). This website provides tips and in-depth information to support children through all phases of a parent’s illness, including a section on parenting principles (mghpact.org/for-parents/parenting-principles), which has advice on end-of-life planning, and a section on useful lessons learned (mghpact.org/for-parents/a-dozen-lessons-learned).
• National Cancer Institute’s Taking Time: Support for People With Cancer: Family Matters (cancer.gov/cancertopics/takingtime/page3). This Web page includes sections on telling children about cancer, teenagers and a parent’s cancer, what children of all ages need to know, and talking with adult children. ■