Children who survive cancer face fewer serious long-term health issues – study

Report covering children diagnosed from 1970 to 1999 finds rate of severe long-term side effects dropped from 12.7% to 8.8%

More children are surviving childhood cancer with fewer debilitating long-term side effects, a new study has found.

The study used data from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, a US database supported by the National Cancer Institute, which collects information on long-term health outcomes of more than 35,000 childhood cancer survivors. It focused on children diagnosed with cancer between 1970 and 1999 who had survived for at least five years.