News

Childhood cancer conference tackles late effects

20 May 2009

European Symposium on Late Complications after Childhood Cancer

Continuing advances in the management of childhood malignancies mean that the majority of children treated for cancer can realistically expect long term survival and indeed nearly 1 in 700 of the adult population are now childhood cancer survivors.

However, children, young people and adult survivors experience morbidity which is generally related to the treatment that they received to cure their cancer (surgery, neurosurgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and/or bone marrow transplantation) rather than to the cancer itself. The challenges for doctors, and other healthcare professionals looking after these patients is to sustain and increase survival rates whilst reducing the incidence and severity of such treatment-induced ‘late-effects’.

At The European Symposium on Late Complications after Childhood Cancer leaders in the field of childhood cancer late effects bring a variety of clinical perspectives to the examination of these issues. The symposium will discuss growth hormone deficiency in adults, second malignancies, nephrotoxicity in children and adolescents treated for cancer, anthracycline cardiotoxicity, nursing procedures and socio-economic issues.

The founders of ESLCCC, Dr. W. Hamish Wallace, Consultant Paediatric Oncologist at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh and Dr. Christian Moёll, Senior Consultant at the Children’s University Hospital in Lund, Sweden, will be introducing the meeting. Joining them will be these eminent speakers:

Professor Stephen M. Shalet, Honorary Consultant and Professor of Medicine and Endocrinology, University of Manchester: Adult Growth Hormone Deficiency – 20 years of experience,

Kevin Oeffinger, M.D. Director of the MSKCC Adult Long Term Follow up Program, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre, New York: Insulin Resistance and metabolic syndrome among long term childhood cancer survivors.

Professor Smita Bhatia, Chair of the Department of Population Sciences, City of Hope National Medical Centre, Duarte: Second Malignant Neoplasms: The well travelled paths and the new directions to be explored

Dr. Leontien CM Kremer, Leader of the international Cochrane Childhood Cancer Group, Amsterdam: Anthracycline cardiotoxicity and prevention, the evidence and consequences

Dr. Charles Sklar, Director of the Long Term Follow Up Program, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre, New York: Efficacy and Safety of Growth Hormone in Survivors of Childhood Cancer