Endocrine Abstracts

In the US approximately 12,400 individuals <age 20 years are diagnosed with cancer yearly. Current 5-yr survival rates are in excess of 70%;it is estimated that there are 250,000 survivors of childhood cancer in the US today. These remarkable survival rates are due, in large part, to advances in cancer therapy that have occurred over the past 30 years. The vast majority of children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer are exposed to multi-modality therapy. Unfortunately, long-term complications from these exposures are noted in at least two-thirds of survivors.

Endocrine sequelae are the most prevalent late complications observed following therapy for childhood cancer and develop in some 40% of survivors, particularly following radiotherapy to the brain/neck and treatment with high-doses of alklylating agents. Endocrine complications are commonly seen in survivors of brain tumors, Hodgkin's disease, and stem cell transplantation.