Spätfolgen nach onkologischer Therapie im Kindesalter

Nowadays in Germany more than 25000 youths and young adults are living after successful therapy of their childhood cancer. Therefore the knowledge about late effects after antineoplastic therapy becomes more and more important today for general practitioners also. The investigations of the possibly affected organ systems are performed according to standardized methods previously published by the LESS study group. In 1998 the prospective multicenter »Late Effects Surveillance System« (LESS) of the society of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology (GPOH) was started to investigate late effects of patients with Ewing's sarcoma, osteosarcoma or soft tissue sarcoma treated in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The examinations shall be carried out during a time period of five years. There exists a lot of possible late effects of the various organ systems. Impairments of the heart, kidneys and hearing function are noted already in the first year after antineoplastic therapy of sarcoma patients. 12% of patients exhibited a reduced systolic heart function. In 37% a hearing deficit was found and 21% showed a reduced tubular function. The care for a patient cannot be finished at the same time as of completion of antineoplastic therapy. With increasing survivor rates of cancer in childhood the aftercare of these patients becomes more and more important today. According to the development of a vertical network family doctors must be included increasingly in the long-term follow-up of cancer survivors in childhood and adolescence.