Original ArticleSchool Attendance in Childhood Cancer Survivors and Their Siblings
Section snippets
Methods
After obtaining permission from our institution's research ethics board, we performed a cross-sectional study of childhood cancer survivors followed in The Hospital for Sick Children's Oncology AfterCare clinic. The AfterCare clinic follows childhood cancer survivors who are >4 years past their diagnosis, >2 years from the end of their therapy, and in continuous remission. Most survivors are seen on an annual basis. Survivors attending the clinic were considered eligible if they were aged ≥8
Results
Between August 2009 and June 2010, a total of 219 eligible survivors attending the AfterCare clinic were approached to participate in the study. A total of 157 childhood cancer survivors consented to participate in the study. We obtained the final school report card from 131 survivors (59.8%) (Table I). The remaining 26 survivors either provided the incorrect report card (interim report card or wrong academic year) or did not bring their report card to clinic and did not mail it in later. There
Discussion
In this study, a cohort of survivors almost 10 years from diagnosis missed twice as many days as did the general population of school children. It is recommended that all childhood cancer survivors receive regular long-term follow-up care, usually in a specialized survivor clinic.15 However, the need to attend multiple additional subspecialist visits in survivors who have developed late effects of therapy may increase the number of school absences. The creation of multidisciplinary survivor
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The authors declare no conflicts of interest.