If your child has cancer, you're probably familiar with the
short-term effects of the disease and its treatment: pain,
nausea, fatigue, skin rashes, and more. But even when the
disease is in remission and your child has been cancer-free for
years, long-term side effects may arise. These problems are
called "late effects." About two-thirds of cancer survivors will
develop at least one late effect sometime in their lifetimes.
With early diagnosis and proper follow-up care, most late
effects can be treated or cured. The cancer itself is not what
typically causes the late effects — rather, it's the treatment.
Chemotherapy and radiation both work by killing fast-growing
cells. Cancer cells are among those, but unfortunately so are
lots of other healthy cells. More research needs to be done to
fully understand the mechanism that causes late effects, but it
is likely that damage to these cells at critical points in a
child's development leads to late effects. The study of late
effects in childhood cancer survivors i