NEW YORK, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- A New York study has suggested that survivors of childhood cancer often experience health problems later in life from the effects of chemotherapy and radiation.
Researchers said the study of more than 10,000 people who were treated for cancer between 1970 and 1986 while under 21 years old found that the patients suffered from high rates of second cancers, heart disease, infertility, damaged joints, learning disorders and other complications, The New York Times reported Thursday.
The study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, said women and patients who suffered from Hodgkin's disease were at the highest risk of severe side-effects and the incidence of complications rose over time.
"Our hope and anticipation is that patients undergoing therapy today will not have quite that burden, but they will certainly face long-term health conditions," said lead author Kevin Oeffinger, director of a program for adult survivors of childhood cancer at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. "It is unavoidable, given the toxicity of the therapies."
