What is the impact of surviving cancer on the health of a child's life?

A new study by researchers at University College London has found that people who have suffered from cancer in their early years have a higher risk of developing the disease as they age, and these risks vary according to the type of cancer and treatment.

Researchers are now calling for these long-term health effects to be considered when young people and their families initially discuss treatment options with the medical team

The study published in The Lancet Regional Health-Europe found that by the age of 45, the number of times cancer survivors visit a general practitioner or hospital due to cardiovascular disease is Five times that of the control group of the same age

In terms of treatment types, researchers found that patients who received both chemotherapy and radiotherapy had the highest burden of late health effects, while cancer survivors who received only surgery had the lowest burden

For example, people receiving chemotherapy and radiotherapy have twice the total number of hospitalizations over the age of 45 than those who have just had surgery, and the number of general practitioners or the hospital-related cardiovascular disease of the same age (average 7 medical encounters per person, and each person There is only one)

Senior author Dr.

"Our research is the first to fully reveal the impact of cancer surviving early in life on our health when we grow up

"We believe that it is important for families and medical teams to consider these long-term effects early, so the benefits of treatment can be weighed against any long-term risks

"Awareness of these long-term problems is also important for survivors, who can better detect symptoms early

"We hope that further research can investigate how to minimize the long-term impact of cancer treatment

The study’s lead author Wai Hoong Chang (Institute of Health Informatics, University College London) said: “Combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy are effective in saving lives, but in the long term it is related to a lower quality of life

The study compared the anonymous health records of 3466 Britons who were diagnosed with cancer before the age of 25 and survived for at least 5 years with a control group of 13,517 who had no cancer in their early years

The researchers compared the burden of 183 physical and mental conditions between the two groups, and observed the total number of times people visit a general practitioner or hospital for each disease

They also analyzed the different disease burdens of cancer survivors according to the type of cancer, the cancer treatment received and the treatment dose

They found that cancer survivors with cardiovascular disease had an average life span of 10 years less than those without cardiovascular disease, while survivors with immune system diseases and infectious diseases had an average life span of 6.

Individuals living in the poorest areas are the most burdened by late-stage health effects, which highlights the need for targeted policies to raise awareness among high-risk individuals

Mental illness is also a common post-effect, which indicates the need for coordinated physical and psychological care
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This animated video explains the research results in easy-to-understand language through the lens of a childhood cancer survivor (https://youtu.
be/-ZkpgXtQOWo)
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This 3-minute video summary (https://youtu.
be/0sLqpaCtHkM) explains the main findings of this research
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