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It shouldn’t come as any surprise that many childhood cancer survivors don’t test for late effects. I say this because, as a long-term cancer survivor, the prospect of treatment-induced late effects is terrifying. I’m not saying that that avoidance is a logical approach to long-term health. I’m simply saying that this might happen.
Let me state at the beginning of this blog post, that I think all long-term cancer survivors should get tested for the late stage side effects that may affect them.
Short-term side effects occur during or immediately after treatment and usually resolve within a few weeks to months after treatment ends. They include:
Long-term side effects are those that appear during treatment and persist for months or years after treatment ends. They include:
Late-stage side effects, or late effects, are those that occur months or years after treatment has ended and may include new health issues that develop as a consequence of the treatment. These include:
Another reason for avoiding anything reminding survivors of their cancer may be the feeling that conventional oncology mistreated them in some way. Or that conventional oncology wasn’t honest with them when they were going through treatment.
If I sound disappointed, angry, cynical, etc. about my own cancer expriences it is because I am disappointed, angry, cynical, etc. that FDA approved “safe and effective” therapies created such devastation.
When childhood cancer patients agree to undergo therapy, there is no way that they understand the possible short, long-term and late stage side effects that can possibly befall them in the years and decades to come.
In my mind, it comes down to a simple question. If you were a cancer survivor, how would you feel?
If you’d like to learn more about those evidence-based but non-conventional therapies that have kept me in complete remission since 1999, email me at David.PeopleBeatingCancer@gmail.com
Thank you,
David Emerson
“Most childhood cancer survivors are not up to date on guideline-recommended screening for late effects of cancer treatment or second malignancies, according to study results.
The retrospective, population-based study…included data from 3,241 adult survivors of childhood cancer. All had been diagnosed between July 1986 and December 2014…
The cohort included survivors at elevated risk for therapy-related
Analyses showed 10% of survivors had an elevated risk for colorectal cancer,
7% had increased risk for breast cancer and
99% had higher risk for cardiomyopathy.
Only 13% of those at elevated risk for colorectal cancer and 6% of those at risk for breast cancer were adherent to recommended surveillance as of February 2020. About half (53%) of those at elevated risk for cardiomyopathy were adherent to recommended surveillance…
Only 13% of those at elevated risk for colorectal cancer and 6% of those at risk for breast cancer were adherent to recommended surveillance as of February 2020. About half (53%) of those at elevated risk for cardiomyopathy were adherent to recommended surveillance….
Healio spoke with Shuldiner about the importance of surveillance screening for childhood cancer survivors, potential explanations for low adherence to surveillance recommendations, and the steps she and her colleagues are taking to improve adherence…
Shuldiner: From this study and previous work, we have found a few reasons why keeping up with screening in this population is difficult.
First, childhood cancer survivors who received treatment when they were young might not know what treatment they received or even what type of cancer they had. Without this information, it is impossible to know what screening they should receive.
Second, guidelines are complex, and they also change as we learn more about the effects of treatments survivors have received.
Third, primary care providers often do not have access to which treatments a survivor has received, and they are not aware that screening is recommended. Right now, the burden is on the survivor to know about their screening and inform their PCP.