Posted June 24, 2013
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has found that childhood cancer survivors overwhelmingly experience a significant amount of undiagnosed, serious disease through their adult years, establishing the importance of proactive, life-long clinical health screenings for this growing high-risk population. The findings appear in the June 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Overall, 98 percent of the 1,713 survivors in the study had at least one chronic health condition, hundreds of which were diagnosed through clinical screenings conducted as part of this long-term, comprehensive health study. Health issues included new cancers, heart abnormalities, abnormal lung function and neurocognitive dysfunction. St. Jude researchers found that by age 45, 80 percent of survivors of childhood cancers have a life-threatening, serious or disabling chronic condition.
“These findings are a wake-up call to health care providers and remind survivors to be proactive about their health,” said Melissa Hudson, M.D., director of the St. Jude Division of Cancer Survivorship and co-first author of the research from the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort Study (St. Jude LIFE). Kirsten Ness, Ph.D., an associate member of the St. Jude Epidemiology and Cancer Control department, is the other co-first author.
In this study, abnormal lung function was diagnosed in 65 percent of survivors at known risk for lung problems due to their childhood cancer treatment. Endocrine problems involving the hypothalamus and pituitary gland were diagnosed in 61 percent of at-risk survivors. Heart abnormalities were diagnosed in 56 percent of at-risk survivors and neurocognitive impairment, including memory problems, were diagnosed in 48 percent of at-risk survivors.
“Many were identified early, often before symptoms developed, when interventions may have their greatest impact,” Hudson said.
For this research study, St. Jude brought survivors back to the hospital