Health
Childhood cancer survivors need long-term follow-up as adults
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted March 10, 2008
Family doctors should be involved in long-term follow-up care of children who survive into adulthood after cancer, according to a Dutch study published in the March The Lancet Oncology.
These children are at particularly high risk for physical and psychosocial effects of treatment and for possible recurrence of cancers, the researchers noted. But as few as 17% of them are receiving follow-up care at age 35, they said.
The three-year study of about 100 patients and physicians concluded that it was feasible to have family doctors and pediatric oncologists provide long-term care to survivors, and that both patients and physicians found the collaboration satisfactory.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/03/10/hlbf0310.htm.
