Clinical guidelines for the care of childhood cancer survivors

Abstract

The Long-Term Follow-Up Guidelines for survivors of childhood, adolescent, and young adult cancers are evidence-and consensus-based guidelines that have been developed and published by the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) Late Effects Committee, Nursing Discipline, and the Patient Advocacy Committee. Originally published in 2004, the guidelines are currently in version 3.0. While the COG guidelines have been praised as a model for providing risk-based survivorship care, adherence has not been uniform. Reasons for this gap include unawareness on the part of the survivor and/or care team as well as disagreement about the individual recommendations. In some cases, the burden of testing (such as annual echocardiography or repeat pulmonary function testing) may be too great. A small number of intervention studies have documented improved adherence to guideline recommendations with dissemination of informational material. Future studies should focus on individualizing screening recommendations, as well as identifying unnecessary testing.