Late effects of pelvic rhabdomyosarcoma and its treatment in female survivors.

Purpose: To document the spectrum and severity of late effects in female survivors of pelvic rhabdomyosarcoma.

Patients And Methods: We reviewed the demographic, diagnostic, treatment, and outcome data of the 26 females treated for pelvic rhabdomyosarcoma at our institution between March 1962 and December 1996 who survived free of disease for 5 or more years. Adverse effects that occurred 5 or more years after diagnosis were graded according to the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, version 3.

Development of risk-based guidelines for pediatric cancer survivors: the Children's Oncology Group Long-Term Follow-Up Guidelines from the Children's Oncology Group Late Effects Committee and Nursing Discipline.

The Children's Oncology Group Long-Term Follow-Up Guidelines for Survivors of Childhood, Adolescent, and Young Adult Cancers are risk-based, exposure-related clinical practice guidelines intended to promote earlier detection of and intervention for complications that may potentially arise as a result of treatment for pediatric malignancies. Developed through the collaborative efforts of the Children's Oncology Group Late Effects Committee, Nursing Discipline, and Patient Advocacy Committee, these guidelines represent a statement of consensus from a multidisciplinary panel of experts in the late effects of pediatric cancer treatment. The guidelines are both evidence-based (utilizing established associations between therapeutic exposures and late effects to identify high-risk categories) and grounded in the collective clinical experience of experts (matching the magnitude of risk with the intensity of screening recommendations).

Facilitating care for childhood cancer survivors: integrating children's oncology group long-term follow-up guidelines and health links in clinical practice.

Childhood cancer survivors are a growing, vulnerable group with health care needs unique to their cancer treatments. They may experience many late physical and psychological complications (late effects) of treatment including organ dysfunction, infertility, second neoplasms, chronic hepatitis, musculoskeletal problems, alterations in cognitive function, and myriad psychosocial problems. Health care providers may be unaware of actual or potential survivor problems.

A model of care for childhood cancer survivors that facilitates research.

The majority of children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer will achieve long-term survival after contemporary therapy. Consequent to this success are challenges inherent in coordinating lifelong health care for a group predisposed to a variety of cancer-related complications. With increasing numbers of aging adult survivors of childhood cancer, clinicians now face the additional challenge of studying delayed effects of childhood cancer in the context of organ senescence.