A new study claims childhood cancer survivors will experience two major health concerns in adulthood; see the details here!
- comments
A new research states that it is critical to follow up on children and teens who have survived cancer in order to fare better physically and mentally later in their adult life.
A couple of studies published in JAMA Oncology show that while there have been many successes in curing cancers among children, survivors later in life may deal with the negative impacts brought about by strong and harsh medications to cure their condition.
A study by researchers from Danish Cancer Society Research Center in Germany found that young cancer survivors have an increased risk for hospitalization compared to the rest of the population. Those who have had leukemia, Hodgkin's lymphoma and brain cancer particularly have the highest risk as they have the most intensive treatments. According to CBC, these survivors are at risk for heart failure, heart valve problems, heart attack risk and problems in school or maintaining a job.
"What's happened over time is that we have gotten better at using the tools at our disposal, chemotherapy, radiation, sometimes a bone marrow transplant, to cure patients. Compared to two or three decades ago, survival is very much improved. Eighty percent of kids with cancer will survive. Thirty or 40 years ago, most of them didn't," said Paul Nathan, an oncologist at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, who was not involved with the study.
"The problem is, in order to achieve that, we have had to treat some patients more intensively and so we are seeing more survivors. Some of them, though, may have long-term consequences of the more intensive therapies."
The second study focused on survivors of a certain bone cancer called osteosarcoma. According to Health Day, researchers found that survivors have decreased mental abilities. The volunteers were tested and it was found that they had low scores in memory, reading comprehension, attention and how fast their brain can process data.
However, the drug used to treat osteosarcoma was not faulted for the survivors' declined mental abilities. The outlet reports that it may be caused by another drug called anthracyclines which damage the heart as the patients were found to have heart problems as well.
According to researchers, cancer survivors must be constantly monitored to determine the long-term effects of the cancer drugs on their health.
"We know that there are late effects that come from treatment, and we need to figure out what we can do to reverse those effects and protect patients and give them an improved quality of life," lead researcher Kevin Krul from Memphis' St. Jude Children's Research Hospital concluded.