When your child is being treated for cancer, it's hard to look past the short-term issues - like fatigue, doctor appointments, and chemotherapy or radiation side effects - to consider the long-term effects that cancer may have on your child's life. Researchers sponsored by the National Cancer Institute have good news, though, when it comes to the long-term attitudes of kids with cancer - they say that childhood cancer survivors who've undergone therapy frequently bounce back and report a higher quality of life than healthy peers.
The participants in the study included three groups of 8- to 12-year-old children:
- 90 children who had received cancer therapy a year or more ago and were currently in remission
- 72 children who currently had cancer and were undergoing therapy
- 481 children healthy children who had no history of cancer or other chronic disease
Researchers interviewed the children in person or on the telephone and asked them to answer questions about different aspects of their health, including their activity levels, ability to move, their relationships with family members, their moods and feelings, hearing, speech and vision, and their general outlook on life.
As expected, the children who were currently undergoing cancer treatment had more physical and emotional symptoms, said they had more physical functioning problems, and reported feeling less positive about life than their healthy peers. However, what researchers didn't expect was the positive outlook of children who'd survived cancer for a year or more. Childhood cancer survivors said they had a better quality of life and felt sad, angry, lonely, or worried less than their healthy peers. Childhood cancer survivors did report more physical symptoms than their healthy peers, but when it came to physical functioning, their scores were similar.
What This Means to You: According to the results of this study, childhood cancer survivors say they have a higher quality of life, compared to healthy peers. The long-term physical and emotional health of children who've survived cancer depends on a variety of factors, including the severity of the cancer, the child's overall health, and the type of treatment. If your child is being treated for cancer, your child's doctor can answer your questions about the effects of treatment and long-term health and quality of life issues.
Source: Sadhna Shankar, MD; Leslie Robison, PhD; Meriel E. M. Jenney, MD; Todd H. Rockwood, PhD; Eric Wu, BA; James Feusner, MD; Debra Friedman, MD; Robert L. Kane, MD; Smita Bhatia, MD, MPH; Pediatrics, February 2005
Reviewed by: Steven Dowshen, MD
Date reviewed: March 2005
