Study: Childhood Cancer Survivors Prone to Chronic Medical Issues as Adults

A new study suggests that the treatments used to help children beat cancer may cause long-term health problems into adulthood. Even with safer and more effective methods of treating pediatric cancer, researchers say childhood cancer survivors still experience chronic medical problems as adults because of the treatments they endure.

The study, which was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that 1 in 4 survivors of pediatric cancer have a chronic medical condition in their 20s and 30s.

"They have chronic conditions at higher rates than siblings and the general population and they perceive their health as worse," said the study’s lead author Kirsten Ness of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

In an email to Reuters Health, Ness further explained that pediatric cancer survivors’ "adverse health outcomes increase with age – like the rest of the population – but several decades sooner.”

For the study, Ness and her research team looked at the medical history of 14,566 pediatric cancer survivors who underwent treatment between 1970 and 1990. They compared their health with that of their siblings who did not have a history of cancer.

Researchers expected the pediatric cancer survivors who were treated in the 90s, where chemotherapy doses and radiation exposure were lowered and less toxic, to have better health outcomes than those treated during the 70s.

"We expected their perceived health to be better–but it was not," Ness said.

While there was a decrease in the percentage of childhood cancer survivors who suffered severe, disabling, or life-threatening conditions (33% in the 70s vs. 21% in the 90s), survivors treated in the 90s were more likely than those in the previous era to report poor general health and anxiety related to their cancer.

The study found that leukemia survivors were more likely to have poor general health while osteosarcoma survivors were more likely to suffer from persistent pain.

Researchers also said survivors who smoked, were underweight or obese, and those who did not get regular exercise were more likely to have poor health.

While changes in treatment doses and medications may not prevent health problems in adulthood, researchers say they may be responsible for allowing patients who may have died in the 70s to live long enough to even have adult health problems.

To learn more, read the full study.