Childhood Cancer survivors face health-related challenges

Childhood cancer survivors in the United States continue to face health-related challenges as they grow older, according to a new study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Researchers also found that people who surpassed childhood cancer feel older than their years.
Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center studied the lifestyle of 7,105 childhood cancer survivors aged 18 to 49 years old. They also conducted an analysis on a previous research by the Medical Expenditures Panel Survey (MEPS) that involved 12,803 childhood cancer survivors. The researchers found that 80 percent of the childhood cancer survivors had chronic illnesses. They also discovered that this large percentage of childhood cancer survivors had chronic diseases that are hardly identical to the chronic illnesses of the general population.
MEPS's previous research found that childhood cancer survivors have more chances of developing chronic diseases such as kidney and heart problems, lung ailments and infertility. The researchers attributed these risks to chemotherapy, surgery, radiation sessions and other medical procedures that childhood cancer survivors underwent at early ages.
Aside from facing health related-challenges, the researchers also discovered that the aging of the cancer childhood survivors is accelerated. They found that the overall quality of life of childhood cancer survivors is akin to the middle-aged people of the general population.