PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Childhood cancer survivors face chronic health problems

Improved treatment means more survivors but with lifetime of treatment-related diseases

2015-04-06
(Press-News.org) CHICAGO --- The number of childhood cancer survivors in the U.S. has increased, but the majority of those who have survived five or more years after diagnosis face chronic health problems related to their treatment, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

The study is the first to estimate the prevalence of treatment-related chronic disease among survivors of childhood cancer at a national level. It found there are nearly 400,000 childhood cancer survivors in the U.S. as of 2011, up 60,000 from 2005.

"We've been able to increase the number of survivors of pediatric cancer, but simply curing their disease isn't enough," said lead author Siobhan Phillips, assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "We need a more coordinated approach to their care to help prevent or delay some of these chronic health problems that affect the quality of their lives. We want them to thrive, not simply survive."

The study was published April 1 in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

"The magnitude of diseases at relatively young ages is quite striking, since you would not expect many of these diseases to be a problem in the general population until much older ages," said Phillips, also a member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.

Among the health problems experienced by childhood cancer survivors are mental impairment, anxiety, pain and physical limitations that affect daily living.

About 70 percent of the survivors of childhood cancers were estimated to have a mild or moderate chronic condition, and about 32 percent were estimated to have a severe, disabling, or life-threatening chronic condition. An estimated 35 percent of the survivors, ages 20 to 49, had neurocognitive dysfunction; about 13 to 17 percent of those in this age group had self-reported functional impairment, activity limitations, impaired mental health, pain or anxiety/fear.

"These facts should challenge all of us in the field not to be content simply with improving lifespan, but to dedicate the future of this field to improving the 'health span' of our survivors," said Dr. Greg Armstrong, principal investigator of the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study and a pediatrician at St. Jude.

"Several important research questions arise from these findings as we consider how to increase our understanding of the chronic and late effects of treatment and how to best develop guidelines and interventions to treat these chronic morbidities in this important population," said co-author Lynne Padgett, rehabilitation psychologist and program director of the NCI at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Childhood cancer survivors should have health care providers who are knowledgeable about their increased risk of chronic health problems, Phillips said. Northwestern's Lurie Cancer Center has a comprehensive long-term follow-up program for adult survivors of pediatric cancer. The STAR Program follows survivors through adulthood, focusing on their special medical and psychological needs.

For the study, the researchers used cancer incidence and survival data recorded between 1975 and 2011 from nine U.S. Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registries, and data from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study cohort that had information on a range of potential adverse and late effects of cancer treatment from more than 14,000 long-term survivors of childhood cancers at 26 cancer centers across the U. S. and Canada.

INFORMATION:

The Childhood Cancer Survivor Study is supported by grant U24-CA-55727 from the NCI of the NIH.

Northern News: http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Inning limits don't prevent MLB pitching injuries

2015-04-06
Restricting the number of innings young Major League Baseball (MLB) pitchers throw does not prevent injuries, according to new research from the University of Waterloo. The study, published in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, also found that gradually increasing the total number of innings pitched per season has no effect on young MLB pitchers' risk of future injury. "Conventional wisdom among coaches and managers is that restricting innings for young starting pitchers, and slowly increasing the number of innings pitched over several years, gives ...

Dwarf dragons discovered in the Andes of Peru and Ecuador

Dwarf dragons discovered in the Andes of Peru and Ecuador
2015-04-06
Scientists have discovered three new species of dragon-esque woodlizards in the Andes of Peru and Ecuador. The new species differ from their closest relatives in scale features, coloration and DNA. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys. Field and laboratory work by Omar Torres-Carvajal (Museo de Zoología QCAZ, Ecuador), Pablo J. Venegas (CORBIDI, Peru), and Kevin de Queiroz (Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, U.S.A) has resulted in the discovery of three new species of dragon-esque woodlizards from Andean cloudforests ...

Research debunks commonly held belief about narcissism

2015-04-06
WASHINGTON - Contrary to popular belief, excessive use of first-person singular pronouns such as "I" and "me" does not necessarily indicate a narcissistic tendency, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. "There is a widely assumed association between use of first-person singular pronouns, what we call I-talk, and narcissism, among laypeople and scientists despite the fact that the empirical support for this relation is surprisingly sparse and generally inconsistent," said Angela Carey, MA, a third-year doctoral candidate in psychology ...

Extraversion may be less common than we think

2015-04-06
Social scientists have long known that, statistically speaking, our friends are probably more popular than we are. It's a simple matter of math: Because extraverted people tend to have more friends, they are disproportionately represented in social networks--which means everyone's network is more extraverted than the population as a whole. New research by researchers Daniel C. Feiler and Adam M. Kleinbaum of Tuck Business School at Dartmouth College extends this so-called "friendship paradox" beyond a purely mathematical claim, documenting the phenomenon within the emerging ...

Women & men have different exclusion criteria for rtPA

2015-04-06
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - After analyzing stroke treatment records, researchers at Rhode Island Hospital in collaboration with researchers from the University of Cincinnati learned that women and men have different reasons for being excluded from receiving the common clot-dissolving drug, recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA). Importantly, more women had very high blood pressures, which reduced their eligibility to be treated with the highly effective drug. The study was recently published in the American Heart Association's (AHA) journal, Stroke. "Although men and ...

Erythropoietin combined with radiation therapy does not improve local-regional control in anemic patients with head and neck cancer

2015-04-06
Fairfax, Va., April 6, 2015--Long-term analysis of Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 9903 demonstrates that the addition of erythropoietin (EPO) did not improve local-regional control for anemic patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCCa) who receive radiation therapy or chemoradiation, according to a study published in the April 1, 2015 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology * Biology * Physics (Red Journal), the official scientific journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). This study is a long-term analysis ...

Can you make your own Game of Thrones sword using chemistry?

Can you make your own Game of Thrones sword using chemistry?
2015-04-06
WASHINGTON, April 6, 2015 -- The fantasy epic Game of Thrones is back this Sunday night, and it is sure to be chock full of intrigue, indiscretions and, of course, swords. The most sought-after blades in Westeros are made from Valyrian steel, forged using ancient magic. But could you make your own Valyrian steel sword using real-life chemistry? Reactions collaborated with cosplaying chemistry fanatic and material scientist Ryan Consell to see if we could blend metallurgy with Westerosi magic. Check out the video here: https://youtu.be/cHRcGoje4j4. INFORMATION: Subscribe ...

Northern coastal marshes more vulnerable to nutrient pollution

Northern coastal marshes more vulnerable to nutrient pollution
2015-04-06
DURHAM, N.C. - Salt marshes at higher latitudes, such as those in densely populated coastal regions of New England and northern Europe, are more vulnerable to the effects of nutrient pollution, a new Duke University study finds. "The heavy flow of nitrogen and phosphorus into these marshes from upstream cities and farms can trigger a chain reaction that can lead to intense overgrazing by marsh herbivores," said Brian R. Silliman, Rachel Carson Associate Professor of Marine Conservation Biology at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment. "Left unchecked, this overgrazing ...

UCLA research links HIV to age-accelerating cellular changes

2015-04-06
People undergoing treatment for HIV-1 have an increased risk for earlier onset of age-related illnesses such as some cancers, renal and kidney disease, frailty, osteoporosis and neurocognitive disease. But is it because of the virus that causes AIDS or the treatment? To answer that question, researchers at the UCLA AIDS Institute and Center for AIDS Research and the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study investigated whether the virus induces age-associated epigenetic changes -- that is, changes to the DNA that in turn lead to changes in expression of gene levels without changing ...

New blood signature analysis may help diagnose Parkinson's disease earlier

2015-04-06
A new blood test may more accurately identify blood signatures, or biomarkers, for Parkinson's disease (PD), according to a new study published in the journal Movement Disorders. The study, conducted by researchers at Mount Sinai and funded by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, applies a new approach to looking for blood biomarkers for both patients with and without a known genetic risk factor for PD. This paper is the fourth in a series that report new computational techniques to improve the identification of reliable blood biomarkers. While biomarkers--such ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Fig trees convert atmospheric CO2 to stone

Intra-arterial tenecteplase for acute stroke after successful endovascular therapy

Study reveals beneficial microbes that can sustain yields in unfertilized fields

Robotic probe quickly measures key properties of new materials

Climate change cuts milk production, even when farmers cool their cows

Frozen, but not sealed: Arctic Ocean remained open to life during ice ages

Some like it cold: Cryorhodopsins

Demystifying gut bacteria with AI

Human wellbeing on a finite planet towards 2100: new study shows humanity at a crossroads

Unlocking the hidden biodiversity of Europe’s villages

Planned hydrogen refuelling stations may lead to millions of euros in yearly losses

Planned C-sections increase the risk of certain childhood cancers

Adults who have survived childhood cancer are at increased risk of severe COVID-19

Drones reveal extreme coral mortality after bleaching

New genetic finding uncovers hidden cause of arsenic resistance in acute promyelocytic leukemia

Native habitats hold the key to the much-loved smashed avocado’s future

Using lightning to make ammonia out of thin air

Machine learning potential-driven insights into pH-dependent CO₂ reduction

Physician associates provide safe care for diagnosed patients when directly supervised by a doctor

How game-play with robots can bring out their human side

Asthma: patient expectations influence the course of the disease

UNM physician tests drug that causes nerve tissue to emit light, enabling faster, safer surgery

New study identifies EMP1 as a key driver of pancreatic cancer progression and poor prognosis

XPR1 identified as a key regulator of ovarian cancer growth through autophagy and immune evasion

Flexible, eco-friendly electronic plastic for wearable tech, sensors

Can the Large Hadron Collider snap string theory?

Stuckeman professor’s new book explores ‘socially sustainable’ architecture

Synthetic DNA nanoparticles for gene therapy

New model to find treatments for an aggressive blood cancer

Special issue of Journal of Intensive Medicine analyzes non-invasive respiratory support

[Press-News.org] Childhood cancer survivors face chronic health problems
Improved treatment means more survivors but with lifetime of treatment-related diseases