Publications by authors named "Moell Christian"

Objectives: Global incidence and attention to childhood cancer is increasing and treatment abandonment is a major cause of treatment failure in low- and middle-income countries. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of factors contributing to non-adherence to treatment.

Design: A prospective cohort study with 2 year follow-up of incidence, family-reported motives and risk factors.

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Chemotherapy in childhood can result in long-term neurophysiological side-effects, which could extend to visual processing, specifically the degree to which a person relies on vision to determine vertical and horizontal (visual dependency). We investigated whether adults treated with chemotherapy in childhood experience elevated visual dependency compared to controls and whether any difference is associated with the age at which subjects were treated. Visual dependency was measured in 23 subjects (mean age 25.

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The objective of cancer treatment is to secure survival. However, as chemotherapeutic agents can affect the central and peripheral nervous systems, patients must undergo a process of central compensation. We explored the effectiveness of this compensation process by measuring postural behaviour in adult survivors of childhood cancer treated with chemotherapy (CTS).

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Advances in the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric malignancies have substantially increased the number of childhood cancer survivors. However, reports suggest that some of the chemotherapy agents used for treatment can cross the blood brain barrier which may lead to a host of neurological symptoms including oculomotor dysfunction. Whether chemotherapy at young age causes oculomotor dysfunction later in life is unknown.

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Objectives: The pattern of autoimmune diseases in childhood cancer survivors has not been investigated previously. We estimated the risk for an autoimmune disease after childhood cancer in a large, population-based setting with outcome measures from comprehensive, nationwide health registries.

Methods: From the national cancer registries of Denmark, Iceland and Sweden, we identified 20 361 1-year survivors of cancer diagnosed before the age of 20 between the start of cancer registration in the 1940s and 1950s through 2008; 125 794 comparison subjects, matched by age, gender and country, were selected from national population registers.

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Background: Previous studies have indicated that survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) have an increased morbidity measured in terms of health care utilization. However, earlier studies have several potentially important limitations. To overcome some of these, we investigated hospital contact rates, and predictors thereof, among 5-year survivors of ALL in a population-based setting, and compared them to a control cohort regarding outcome measures from a comprehensive nation-wide health register.

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Aim: An increased risk for diabetes mellitus (DM) adds significantly to the burden of late complications in childhood cancer survivors. Complications of DM may be prevented by using appropriate screening. It is, therefore, important to better characterise the reported increased risk for DM in a large population-based setting.

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Background: Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) patients treated with cranial radiotherapy (CRT) have an increased risk of GH deficiency (GHD). Little is known about insufficiencies of prolactin (PRL) and TSH, but also lactation failure has been reported in this population.

Objective: To study the long-term outcome of CRT on PRL and thyroid hormone levels in GHD ALL patients and the prevalence of lactation failure.

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Objective: To investigate word recognition in noise in subjects treated in childhood with chemotherapy, study benefits of open-fitting hearing-aids for word recognition, and investigate whether self-reported hearing-handicap corresponded to subjects' word recognition ability.

Design: Subjects diagnosed with cancer and treated with platinum-based chemotherapy in childhood underwent audiometric evaluations.

Study Sample: Fifteen subjects (eight females and seven males) fulfilled the criteria set for the study, and four of those received customized open-fitting hearing-aids.

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Objective: Cancer treatment in childhood leads to permanent azoospermia in a significant number of boys and those who are diagnosed with cancer before puberty do not have the option of pretreatment cryopreservation of spermatozoa. However, there is an interindividual variation in the sensitivity to gonadotoxic effects of cancer therapy, which probably is due to genetic factors. Identification of genetic markers for the risk of azoospermia in childhood cancer survivors may help in identifying boys to whom testicular cryopreservation should be offered.

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Objective: Bone mineral density (BMD) in survivors of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) seems to vary with time, type of treatments and GH status. We aimed to evaluate BMD in ALL patients with GH deficiency (GHD), with and without GH therapy.

Design: Case-control study.

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Background: Chemotherapy is used in the treatment of children and adolescents with malignant diseases. Some of the chemotherapeutic agents are highly toxic and may cause a number of side effects. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the long-term effects on hearing in cancer survivors who had received platinum-based chemotherapy in childhood or adolescence.

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Background: The increasing number of survivors after childhood cancer requires characterization of the late complications of these diseases and their treatment. We examined a large number of possible socio-economic late effects following treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in order to identify factors leading to a poor outcome.

Procedure: All individuals who had been diagnosed with ALL and who were alive in January 2007 (n = 213; men = 107) were identified from a database of all patients with cancer before the age of 18 in Southern Sweden from 1970 to 1999.

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Purpose: It is not known whether childhood cancer and its treatment are associated with sperm DNA damage, which subsequently affects fertility and might be transmitted to the offspring. The aim of this study is to assess DNA fragmentation index (DFI) as an indicator of sperm DNA integrity in childhood cancer survivors (CCS), with treatment regimen taken into account.

Experimental Design: In 99 CCS and 193 age-matched healthy controls, DFI was assessed by using sperm chromatin structure assay.

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Context: Pediatric cancer treatment may imply an increased risk of hypogonadism, leading to metabolic disorders and osteoporosis. Such complications are potentially preventable.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess diagnosis- and treatment-dependent risk of hypogonadism in male childhood cancer survivors (CCS).

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Objective: Cranial radiotherapy (CRT) was, until recently, important for achieving long-term survival in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). Because survival rates have improved markedly, the long-term complications, such as GH deficiency (GHD) and neuropsychological impairment, have become increasingly important.

Design And Patients: The level of self-reported quality of life and neuropsychological functioning was investigated in 44 adults (21 women) with a median age of 25 years who had been treated for childhood onset (CO) ALL with CRT (median 24 Gy).

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Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common childhood malignancy, and until recently prophylactic cranial radiotherapy (CRT) was important for achieving long-term survival. Hypothalamic-pituitary hormone insufficiency is a well-recognized consequence of CRT for childhood cancer. Another problem is increased cardiovascular risk, which has been shown in long-term survivors of other childhood cancers.

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