by Kim F
According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), more than ten million cancer survivors are currently live in the US. It is obvious that more people are surviving different types of cancer every day. This is a great advancement due to different types of radiation and chemotherapy. What a lot of people do not know is that there are many instances where long-term cancer survivors are experiencing side effects to the radiation or chemotherapy that they were treated by. These effects include, “second cancers, organ damage, and physical disabilities.” It is not known how many people will experience these late side effects, it is therefore unknown what type of long term and follow up care will be needed. The ASCO wanted to learn more so they “convened a panel of experts to review scientific evidence surrounding the incidence of long-term side effects to the heart and lungs from chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and Herceptin treatment.” They found that cancer patients who undergo both radiation and chemotherapy are at a greater risk for heart failure. Symptoms of heart damage may be as common as, “shortness of breath, or swelling of ankles or more severe as scarring of the pericardium, heart valves, and narrowing of major coronary arteries. The long-term side effects to the lungs include scar tissue to form in or around the lungs. This causes breathing to be very constricted. The ASCO recommends that talking with a doctor about these possibilities is best to determine if any long care treatment will be required.
I decided to research the long-term effects of radiation and chemotherapy on surviving cancer patients due to a recent family crisis, .I think this is a great article and one that many people should read if they are ever treated by radiation of chemotherapy. It is very important to know what long term side effects may occur so a course of long term care can be provided. Unfortunately, I hold this issue very close to my heart because it happened and is still happening with my father. He was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease when he was twenty-five. He had intense radiation treatment to his chest area. The radiation treated the cancer but left him with scar tissue all of over his lungs and calcifications around his aorta. He also was diagnosed with another form of cancer about seven years ago and underwent intense chemotherapy. Because of all of the long term side effects he now has chronic lung disease which recently caused him to get a very deadly case of pneumonia placing him in the hospital for seven weeks and causing him to be on oxygen the rest of his life. If his doctors had told him that these things could possibly occur, I know that he would have researched long term care so that he was not in the position he is in today. I think that it is necessary for the ASCO and other health organizations to continue this type of research with long-term cancer survivors so these side effects can be reduced and less life threatening.
URL for article- www.asco.org
URL for Picture: www.lifespan.org
