The Late Effects Clinic in action: for survivors of childhood malignancy

Acta Oncol. 2007;46(8):1152-8. doi: 10.1080/02841860701426815.

Abstract

Long-term survivors of childhood malignancy are a newly emergent patient group with a unique but wide range of survivorship issues. There are rising demands for long-term, medical follow-up and social support for this potentially vulnerable group. These demands stem from improving survival rates and the progressively increasing incidence of late physical, psychological and social sequelae. CASE-STUDIES AND DISCUSSION: The ideal method to facilitate this long-term followup is unclear, and faces the problems of health-care system limitations coupled with the paucity of outcomes-based research to guide evidence-based, clinical practice. We discuss how the Late Effects Clinic operates in our institution: optimising the involvement of the multi-disciplinary medical and allied health care teams to meet the physical and psychological needs of long-term survivors, and to assist with the social issues surrounding survivorship. This model involves a co-operative team approach, thereby alleviating the sole responsibility from general practitioners or individual physicians with a restricted realm of expertise. We present three case reports illustrating the value of a formal late effects follow-up programme, and demonstrating the integration of the Late Effects Clinic into medical practice.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aftercare
  • Ambulatory Care Facilities*
  • Child
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Humans
  • Interdisciplinary Communication
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neoplasms / pathology
  • Neoplasms / rehabilitation*
  • Neoplasms / therapy
  • Neoplasms, Second Primary / epidemiology
  • Neoplasms, Second Primary / pathology
  • Program Evaluation
  • Referral and Consultation / statistics & numerical data
  • Survivors*