• Cancer · Dec 2005

    A model for care across the cancer continuum.

    • Melissa M Hudson.
    • Department of Hematology-Oncology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 322 North Lauderdale, Memphis, Tennessee 38105-2794, USA. melissa.hudson@stjude.org
    • Cancer. 2005 Dec 1; 104 (11 Suppl): 2638-42.

    AbstractWith contemporary therapy, the majority of children and adolescents who are diagnosed with cancer will be cured. However, curative therapy predisposes to adverse health outcomes that affect the long-term survivor's quality of life and increase the risk of early mortality. Recognition of the adverse effects of cancer treatment on growth and development, vital organ function, fertility and reproduction, and secondary carcinogenesis has been the stimulus for the development of risk-adapted treatment approaches for pediatric malignancies. Because the consequences of these therapeutic modifications may not manifest for many years, long-term follow-up is required to accurately define new or changing patterns of adverse health outcomes, appropriate screening approaches, and ultimately, risk-reducing interventions. Identification of vulnerable survivors is essential to provide timely interventions to detect, ameliorate, reduce, or prevent cancer-related sequelae. This process is challenging, because risk factors constantly are evolving as cancer therapies are modified and as survivors age. Aging also disrupts the continuity of after-cancer care, as adolescent and young adult survivors graduate from pediatric oncology practices to community medical providers who are largely unfamiliar with cancer-related health risks. Health outcomes research objectives that target cancer survivors must adapt as cancer therapies evolve and as new risk factors for cancer-related morbidity emerge. Prospectively using a multidimensional, comprehensive approach that considers host-related, cancer-related, genetic, and lifestyle factors in combination with results from focused medical and behavioral evaluations obtained from cancer survivors who participate in long-term follow-up programs provides an optimal method of defining high-risk profiles for adverse health outcomes across the age spectrum.

      Pubmed     Free full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…