A study of more than 15,000 childhood cancer survivors found a “surprisingly” high number lacked concern for their well-being in adulthood—despite the group’s increased health risks. Some 40 percent were unconcerned about developing new cancers.
Researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Chicago completed the largest analysis of its kind to date, according to a news release, which consisted of questionnaire data from 15,620 survivors. In addition to the 31 percent not concerned with their future health.
Results were published online June 25 in Cancer.
“The medical community has learned a lot about the risks faced by this group of survivors, but very little was known about how the survivors themselves perceived their risks of these late effects,” said lead researcher Todd Gibson, PhD, with St. Jude’s Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Control in the statement.
Gibson and colleagues surveyed 3,991 siblings from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study and compared their responses to those from survivors.
They found the siblings’ concern with the future health of their counterpart was like that of survivors, as was their concern with developing another type of cancer.
"That similarity was really the major surprise in our findings," Gibson said. "Despite the fact that survivors have such a greatly increased risk of both second cancers and other health problems, their perception of risk was not always commensurate with their actual risk."
Gibson and his colleagues, surprised by the results, were unsure the underlying causes, but they did offer a few guesses.
"At this point, we can only speculate, but the most obvious reason would be that survivors may not fully understand their risks," he said, "We do know from prior studies that not all survivors are fully aware of the specific treatments they received and how those might increase their risks of late effects."
Future studies, Gibson said, should focus on the motivations behind the lack of concern seen in survivors, and if the feeling has any meaning on their health behavior.
Matt joined Chicago’s TriMed team in 2018 covering all areas of health imaging after two years reporting on the hospital field. He holds a bachelor’s in English from UIC, and enjoys a good cup of coffee and an interesting documentary.