Pediatric Cancer

With the survival rate of childhood cancer improving and advancements in treatments allowing more of the care to take place in the home, the responsibility of caregiving is increasingly being placed on family members.

Parenting a child with a life-threatening illness like cancer is associated with unique demands, but simultaneously raising healthy siblings can add yet another layer of complexity.

Gwendolyn Quinn, PhD, from Moffitt Cancer Center and professor of oncologic sciences at the University of South Florida College of Medicine, discusses fertility concerns among survivors of childhood cancer.

Gregory T. Armstrong, MD, MSCE, pediatric oncologist, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, discusses a trial of 34,000 childhood cancer survivors.

Findings from an analysis of more than 34,000 participants in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study show that among those who have survived at least 5 years, all-cause mortality at 15 years after diagnosis dropped by half from 12.4% to 6%.

Dawn M. Carey RN, MSN, APN, LITE Program Coordinator, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, outlines some of the challenges when treating childhood cancer survivors as they age.

A new study has found that although the number of childhood cancer survivors is increasing, the majority of those to survive 5 or more years beyond diagnosis have at least one chronic health condition.

Dawn M. Carey RN, MSN, APN, LITE Program Coordinator, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, discusses caring for childhood cancer survivors.

When trained, advanced practice nurses followed up written heart screening guidelines with telephone calls to survivors of childhood cancers, screening uptake more than doubled among those who received the telephone-based counseling.

When parents are involved in the care of a child with cancer, they experience both positive and negative changes in their relationships, communication, stress, and their roles.

As oncology nurses, we have too often seen young adults who, successfully cured of their childhood cancers, return with serious or debilitating health concerns or even a secondary malignancy as a late effect from chemotherapy or radiation.

Adult survivors of childhood cancer face significant health problems as they age and are five times more likely than their siblings to develop new cancers, heart, and other serious health conditions beyond the age of 35 years