The practice of artistic activities, as part of treatment in paediatric oncology, can contribute to promote health and improving quality of life of children with cancer, providing them the expression of emotions and interaction with other children and the hospital staff (Araújo, 2011). Introducing such activities at the early onset of children’s cancer can help improving their psychological and emotional well-being as well as their cognitive development and school performance. This is particularly relevant with the nowadays high increase of survival rates and life expectancy of these children with oncological disease, where the quality of their life is of paramount importance (Araújo, 2011).

The three most common types of cancer in children under 15 years are leukaemia, tumours of the central nervous system and lymphomas (Silva 2007). Regardless the type of cancer or the child’s medical condition, the experience of a malignant disease in childhood always places the child and his/her family facing a number of potential stressful situations and changes in their life routine (Silva, 2007). Thus, health care, must be built in an enlarged and humanized way, based on common values and shared among an multidisciplinary team, in order to promote health and reach the goal of improving the quality of life (Othero, 2010), also contributing to facilitate learning in school.

Increasingly, institutions of oncology have been introducing in their assistance programmes this concept of multidisciplinary team (Vasconcellos, 2007), thus expanding the possibilities for complementary therapies and health care. In this sense, art therapy has been applied to overcome some communication difficulties experienced by diseased children, providing the expression of their emotions and perceptions through the use of simple materials and of easy access (Sousa, 2005).

When implementing activities of artistic expression, the child’s personality is shown out, facilitating the identification of his/her personal difficulties of coping with the disease. This is a process of personality discovery that comes out through multiple practices and experiences, which collected information can be used for specific health care choices in health promotion (Paín, 2009). The provision of such artistic activities in the educational and pedagogical hospital children’s sector not only enable their artistic expression but also develop their creativity, cognitive skills, sociability and emotional balance (Araújo, 2011; Othero, 2010; Vasconcelos, 2007). In short, artistic activities improve the quality of life of hospitalized children.

The present study aimed at identifying the parameters of the artistic activities practices carried out in the paediatric sector of the Portuguese Institute of Oncology, in Porto, Portugal, by inquiring the children with cancer, their parents and the hospital multidisciplinary team, composed of medical staff, nurses, teachers and social service workers.

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