Purpose: To assess the documentation of late-effects (LE) risks and screening recommendations in medical records of adolescent and young adult central nervous system (CNS), soft tissue, and bone tumor survivors.
Methods: The medical records of all patients diagnosed with a CNS neoplasm, an arteriovenous malformation, a soft tissue, and bone tumor, at ages 15-39 years, treated between 1985 and 2010 with radiation therapy in the province of British Columbia, Canada, surviving >5 years, alive, and discharged to the community were assessed. The documentation of LE risks and screening recommendations were analyzed descriptively.
Results: In the medical records of 132 CNS tumor survivors and 94 soft tissue or bone tumor survivors, 15% and 13% included no documentation of LE risks, 21% and 22% included only nonspecific documentation, and 64% and 65% minimal documentation, respectively. Documentation of at least one specific LE risk increased significantly among CNS tumor patient charts (from 29% in 1980-1989, to 67% in 1990-1999, to 88% in 2000-2010, χ2 [2, N = 132] = 32.257, p < 0.000) and soft tissue or bone tumor patient charts (from 47% [1980-1989] to 56% [1990-1999] to 78% [2000-2010], χ2 [2, N = 94] = 6.702, p = 0.035). There was no documentation of a screening recommendation in 75% of CNS tumor patient charts and 91% of soft tissue and bone tumor charts.
Conclusion: The documentation of LE risks and screening recommendations has been limited, highlighting the need to improve written communication with primary care providers.
Keywords: central nervous system (CNS) tumor; late effects; radiation therapy; sarcoma.