Purpose: Surveillance for long-term complications related to previous cancer therapy can help diagnose/ manage chronic health conditions in childhood cancer survivors and improve survivor quality of life. However, a challenge to delivering long-term care to childhood cancer survivors is loss to follow-up; many patients discontinue care at specialized survivor care centers. The purpose of this study was to examine patterns of loss to follow-up among a cohort of childhood cancer survivors. Methods: This retrospective study examined follow-up patterns among a nonrandom representative sample of 370 childhood cancer survivors among 1116 patients from a single institution. The median age of patients at diagnosis was 10.2 years (range <1-21). Factors potentially related to follow-up were utilized to evaluate patterns of follow-up across 5-year intervals following completion of active therapy. The association between patient characteristics and follow-up was evaluated using univariate and multivariate binomial regression models. Results: The probability of follow-up 1-5 years post-treatment was 91.2% (89.7%-92.5%) but dropped to 68.5% (66.2%-70.8%) during years 6-10, 47.7% (45.0%-50.3%) during years 11-15, and continued to steadily decrease over time. Overall, white race, diagnoses at younger ages, patients with lymphomas/leukemias, and decade of diagnosis were each associated with somewhat better rates of follow-up. Conclusions: These findings highlight the lack of follow-up by adult survivors of childhood cancer with only approximately one-half of patients returning for follow-up 10 years after completion of therapy. Interventions focused on educating both patients and primary care physicians may help to increase long-term follow-up care among this at-risk population.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.