The cumulative burden of self-reported, clinically relevant outcomes in long-term childhood cancer survivors and implications for survivorship care: A DCCSS LATER study

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study is to evaluate how cumulative burden of clinically relevant, self-reported outcomes in childhood cancer survivors (CCSs) compares to a sibling control group and to explore how the burden corresponds to levels of care proposed by existing risk stratifications.

METHODS

The authors invited 5925 5-year survivors from the Dutch Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (DCCSS LATER) cohort and their 1066 siblings to complete a questionnaire on health outcomes. Health outcomes were validated by self-reported medication use or medical record review. Missing data on clinically relevant outcomes in CCSs for whom no questionnaire data were available were imputed with predictive mean matching. We calculated the mean cumulative count (MCC) for clinically relevant outcomes. Furthermore, we calculated 30-year MCC for groups of CCSs based on primary cancer diagnosis and treatment, ranked 30-year MCC, and compared the ranking to levels of care according to existing risk stratifications.

RESULTS

At median 18.5 years after 5-year survival, 46% of CCSs had at least one clinically relevant outcome. CCSs experienced 2.8 times more health conditions than siblings (30-year MCC = 0.79; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.74-0.85 vs. 30-year MCC = 0.29; 95% CI, 0.25-0.34). CCSs' burden of clinically relevant outcomes consisted mainly of endocrine and vascular conditions and varied by primary cancer type. The ranking of the 30-year MCC often did not correspond with levels of care in existing risk stratifications.

CONCLUSIONS

CCSs experience a high cumulative burden of clinically relevant outcomes that was not completely reflected by current risk stratifications. Choices for survivorship care should extend beyond primary tumor and treatment parameters, and should consider also including CCSs' current morbidity.

Pediatric papillary thyroid cancer: current management challenges

Although with a standardized incidence of 0.54 cases per 100,000 persons, differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) is a rare disease in children and adolescents, it nonetheless concerns ~1.4% of all pediatric malignancies. Furthermore, its incidence is rising. Due to the rarity and long survival of pediatric DTC patients, in most areas of treatment little evidence exists. Treatment of pediatric DTC is therefore littered with controversies, many questions therefore remain open regarding the optimal management of pediatric papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), and many challenges remain unsolved. In the present review, we aim to provide an overview of these challenging areas of patient and disease management in pediatric PTC patients. Data on diagnosis, surgery, radionuclide, and endocrine therapy are discussed, and the controversies therein are highlighted.