For several years after treatment, it is very important for your child to have regular follow-up visits with the cancer doctor. The doctor will watch for signs of disease, as well as for short-term and long-term side effects of treatment. Doctor visits will be more frequent at first, but the time between visits may be longer as time goes on.

Check-ups after treatment include a careful physical exam, x-rays, and lab tests. Children who have a relapse usually do so while on treatment or shortly after. It is unusual for this disease to come back if there are no signs of the disease one year after treatment.

Follow-up care gives you a chance to talk about any questions or concerns that come up during and after your child's recovery. It is important to report any new symptoms to the doctor right away so that they can be treated. Also, the doctor or other members of the health care team can tell you about special programs to help children and their families during and after treatment for childhood cancer.

It is also important for you to keep records of your child's treatment. When he or she becomes an adult and comes under the care of other doctors, they will need to know all about the cancer and how it was treated.

Long-term effects of cancer treatment

Because of better treatment, more children treated for cancer are living to become adults. As a result, their health as adults has come more into focus in recent years. Researchers have learned that childhood cancer treatment may affect that child's health later in life. This result has become known as a late effect. Careful follow-up after cancer treatment means these problems can be found and dealt with right away.

Childhood cancer survivors are at risk, to some degree, for several possible late effects of their cancer treatment. This risk depends on a number of factors, such as the type of cancer, the cancer treatments (and dosages) the child received, and the age at which they got cancer treatment.

Late effects could include:

• heart or lung problems after having certain chemo drugs or radiation treatment
• slowed or decreased growth and development
• changes in sexual development and the ability to have children
• changes in intellectual function with learning problems
• development of second cancers later in life (though this is rare)

For more information about these and other possible late effects, please see our document Childhood Cancer: Late Effects of Cancer Treatment.

Moving on

At some point, treatment will be over; and your child will grow up and be on his or her own. A new doctor will probably be caring for your child. It is important that you or your child be able to give the new doctors the exact details of the diagnosis and treatment. Gathering the details during or soon after treatment is easier than trying to get them later on.

There are certain pieces of information you should always keep copies of and see that your child's doctors have, even into adulthood. These are:

• a copy of the pathology report from any biopsies or surgeries

• a copy of the operative report if your child had surgery

• if there were hospitalizations, a copy of the discharge summaries that doctors prepare when patients leave the hospital

• A list of the final doses of each chemo drug or other drug your child had. (Certain drugs have specific long-term side effects. If you can get a list of these from your child's cancer doctor, this might help any new doctor.)

• If your child had radiation, a final summary of the dose and field

Last Medical Review: 07/29/2009
Last Revised: 07/29/2009