Taking Charge of Your Health: A Guide to Medical Follow-up for Young Adults Who Had Cancer in Childhood

Congratulations on being a survivor of childhood cancer. You are a part of an ever-growing alumni association that grows by as many as 4,000 new members annually. Because you are a member of this very special group of adults, it is important to protect your good health by fully understanding the cancer treatment you had and making sure that you receive the right medical follow-up.

We expect you to live a happy, healthy and long life. We do realize however, that years after treatment, adults can develop medical problems that may be related to their childhood cancer and its treatment. These delayed or late side effects occur in some, but not all adults and may be mild, moderate or severe. Whether or not late effects occur depends upon several factors: they type of cancer and its management, the age at treatment, and duration of therapy. Some late effects can be detected easily and early. You can play an important role in safeguarding your good health by planning your health care to include evaluations that can detect delayed effects.

To do this, you should know the type of cancer you had, the treatment you received and the medical follow-up that is appropriate for you.

What follows is information describing:

• treatments for childhood cancer: Chemotherapy, Radiation Therapy, Surgery;
• delayed effects of cancer therapies; 
• a chart outlining recommendations for medical follow-up;
• five ways to take charge of your health; and
• a resource list.
• follow up roadmaps (Adobe pdf): Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, Germ Cell Tumor, Hodgkins Disease, Neuroblastoma, Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, Radiation
• general follow up guidelines (pdf)

Get the Acrobat PDF Reader here.

Curing your cancer was only part of your job. Helping to maintain your good health is equally important. Read on and…take charge of your health!