The Endocrine Society publishes a clinical guide to advise healthcare professionals on how to diagnose and treat endocrine disorders in childhood cancer survivors.
Recent data show that 50% of children who are cancer survivors will develop an endocrine disorder in their lifetime. Childhood cancers are relatively rare, and thanks to improved treatment and care, the five-year survival rate is over 80%. It is estimated that by 2020 there will be half a million childhood cancer survivors in the United States.
However, these survivors are at greater risk of developing serious medical complications, even decades after their cancer treatment has ended. Endocrine disorders are particularly common in this population, often due to exposure to radiation therapy. Based on this information, the Endocrine Society publishes a clinical practice guideline to advise healthcare professionals on how to diagnose and treat endocrine disorders in childhood cancer survivors.
What are endocrine disorders?
“Our guideline focuses on the increasing risk of endocrine disorders in childhood cancer survivors. We present practical cases to learn how to properly manage pituitary and growth disorders commonly found in this population. We also stress the need to screen these patients for life, “said Charles A. Sklar, chairman of the editorial board. Thus, children who have survived cancer must, throughout their lives, be screened for growth disorders, pituitary hormone deficiencies and precocious puberty. The guide, entitled “Hypothalamic-Pituitary and Growth Disorders in Survivors of Childhood Cancer: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline“, is now available online.
Endocrine disorders include all the disorders associated with the endocrine system, in other words with the organs (endocrine glands) which secrete hormones. The different hormones are produced by the pituitary gland, hypothalamus, adrenals, thyroid, thymus, pancreas, ovaries and testes. These disorders include diabetes, Cushing’s syndrome, infertility, erectile dysfunction, adrenal insufficiency, hypothyroidism, and hyperthyroidism.
Leukemia accounts for almost a third of cases
According to a recent study by the World Health Organization (WHO), the frequency of childhood cancer increased by 13% in the 2000s compared to the 1980s. Among those under 14, the incidence of cancer was 140 cases per 1 million children per year between 2001 and 2010.
Leukemia alone accounts for almost a third of cases. Next come tumors of the central nervous system (20%) and lymphomas (12%). In patients under 5 years old, one third of cases are embryonic tumors, such as neuroblastoma, retinoblastoma, nephroblastoma or hepatoblastoma.
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