Publication details

Survivorship after childhood cancer: PanCare: A European Network to promote optimal long-term care

Authors	HJORTH Lars HAUPT Riccardo SKINNER Roderick GRABOW Desiree BYRNE Julianne KARNER Sabine LEVITT Gill MICHEL Gisela PAL Helena van der BARDI Edit BECK Jörn D. VATHAIRE Florent de ESSIG Stefan FREY Eva GARWICZ Stanislav HAWKINS Mike JAKAB Zsuzsanna JANKOVIC Momcilo KAZANOWSKA Bernarda KEPÁK Tomáš KREMER Leontinen LACKNER Herwig SUGDEN Elaine TERENZIANI Monica ZALETEL Lorna Zadravec KAATSCH Peter
Year of publication	2015
Type	Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source	European Journal of Cancer
MU Faculty or unit	Faculty of Medicine
Citation
Doi	http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejca.2015.04.002
Field	Oncology and hematology
Keywords	Childhood cancer; Survivorship; Long-term care; Long-term follow-up; Late effects
Description	Survival after childhood cancer has improved substantially over recent decades. Although cancer in childhood is rare increasingly effective treatments have led to a growing number of long-term survivors. It is estimated that there are between 300,000 and 500,000 childhood cancer survivors in Europe. Such good survival prospects raise important questions relating to late effects of treatment for cancer. Research has shown that the majority will suffer adverse health outcomes and premature mortality compared with the general population. While chronic health conditions are common among childhood cancer survivors, each specific type of late effect is very rare. Long-term effects must be considered particularly when addressing complex multimodality treatments, and taking into account the interaction between aspects of treatment and genotype. The PanCare Network was set up across Europe in order to effectively answer many of these questions and thereby improve the care and quality of life of survivors. The need for a structured long-term follow-up system after childhood cancer has been recognised for some time and strategies for implementation have been developed, first nationally and then trans-nationally, across Europe. Since its first meeting in Lund in 2008, the goal of the PanCare Network has been to coordinate and implement these strategies to ensure that every European survivor of childhood and adolescent cancer receives optimal long-term care. This paper will outline the structure and work of the PanCare Network, including the results of several European surveys, the start of two EU-funded projects and interactions with relevant stakeholders and related projects.