Radiotherapy and Late Effects

Abstract

Advances in multimodality care for patients with pediatric cancer continues to improve long-term survival. The use of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy may lead to debilitating late effects in childhood cancer survivors. It is critically important to understand, mitigate, and screen for late effects to improve the quality of life in childhood cancer survivors. This review summarizes the use of radiotherapy in children, radiobiology of tissue injury, impact of age on late effects, important organ systems affected by radiotherapy during survivorship, and screening for radiotherapy late effects.

Keywords: Late effects; Pediatric cancer; Radiobiology; Radiotherapy.