The rate of teens and young adults who have survived cancer has significantly improved however new study suggests that these survivors face higher risk of having poor mental and physical health.
As reported in Philly, these health problems may be caused by the toxic medications needed to treat cancer according to researchers. It's a double edged sword when it comes to cancer treatment.
"We are doing a lot better at curing childhood cancers, but there are a lot of late effects of treatment that need to be looked at," said Dr. Karen Effinger, a pediatrics instructor at Stanford School of Medicine.
Most children and teens are vulnerable to the long term effects of cancer treatment as they were exposed to toxics at an early age, noted by the researchers.
Thursday issue of JAMA Oncology includes two studies that describe the post-cancer life of the young survivors.
CBC reports that in the first study, doctors and researchers from Danish Cancer Society Research Center in Copenhagen examined the risk of hospitalization in 33,555 five-year old cancer survivors over the course of six decades. This resulting data were then compared to people in the general population.
Results show that survivors of leukemia, brain cancer and Hodgkin's lymphoma which is cured with intensive and long treatments, were at the highest risk according to Katherine Rugbjerg, Dr. Jorgen Olsen and their co-authors. On the other hand, those who survived bone cancer were likely to have poor reading and thinking skills.
"Survivors after cancer in adolescence and young adulthood should be knowledgeable about their increased risk for health problems related to their treatment," said Rugbjerg. "Increased attention to symptoms that might indicate a disease and being treated early might prevent their increased risk for health problems related to their treatment.
A smaller study led by researcher Kevin Krull of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, examined the mental abilities of survivors of osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer.
Results show that these cancer survivors had lower scores in reading, attention, memory and the speed at which their brain processes information. It supports the data of the first study.
Surprisingly, it was not caused by methotrexate, a drug used to treat osteosarcoma although it is said to cause mental decline when given in high dosage. It appears that their mental impairment was caused by their current health condition.
These findings are quite alarming since this simply means that education and good future are becoming hard for the young cancer survivors. Further studies should be done to reverse these effects and help cancer survivors have an improved quality of life.
