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Childhood cancer survival rates are high, but problems can develop later in life

Amy Caruso Brown, MDThe majority of children diagnosed with cancer will survive. Many go on to experience late effects, such as infertility, secondary cancers, heart problems or other problems that develop years or decades later. Pediatric oncologist Amy Caruso Brown, MD, talks in this interview about the difficult transition patients and their families face when they complete treatment and become survivors. They have to learn to live with the specter of late effects in the background. When patients ask, Brown shares with them the story of her father, one of the early survivors of Hodgkin's disease at the age of 19. He struggled with heart and lung problems related to his treatment later in life, but Brown stresses that in the meantime, he was able to live a wonderful life.

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