Childhood cancers 'cause long-term health problems'
Children who survive cancer are at greater risk of long-term illness
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Thursday, 12, Oct 2006 01:50
People who survived cancer as a child may face long-term health problems in their adult lives, a new study has found.
Researchers behind the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study argue that the findings illustrate the need for continued medical surveillance of adult survivors of childhood cancers.
More than 10,000 people who had cancer as a child were compared to approximately 3,000 of their siblings.
Survivors of cancer were found to be more than three times as likely to have a chronic health condition and more than eight times as likely to have a severe or life-threatening condition.
Long-term survivors, who were first diagnosed between 1970 and 1986, were identified as being particularly vulnerable to second cancers, heart conditions, kidney disease, osteoporosis and sterility amongst other conditions.
Female survivors are said to be at a higher risk than male survivors for chronic illnesses.
Dr Anna Meadows, one of the study's authors, of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia commented: "Fewer than 20 per cent of these patients are followed by an oncologist or at a cancer centre, but they clearly have special medical needs and higher risks."
The study, which was sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, is published in the October 12th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.