# Chronic health conditions in adult survivors of childhood cancer

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-oeffinger-n-engl-j-med/  
OnCo record `paper-oeffinger-n-engl-j-med` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Paper cited by one bottleneck page, indexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 17035650 and published in New England Journal of Medicine; the citing page links this DOI, which is how the record was matched.

## Summary

Background: Only a few small studies have assessed the long-term morbidity that follows the treatment of childhood cancer. We determined the incidence and severity of chronic health conditions in adult survivors.

Methods: The Childhood Cancer Survivor Study is a retrospective cohort study that tracks the health status of adults who received a diagnosis of childhood cancer between 1970 and 1986 and compares the results with those of siblings. We calculated the frequencies of chronic conditions in 10,397 survivors and 3034 siblings. A severity score (grades 1 through 4, ranging from mild to life-threatening or disabling) was assigned to each condition. Cox proportional-hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios, reported as relative risks and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), for a chronic condition.

Results: Survivors and siblings had mean ages of 26.6 years (range, 18.0 to 48.0) and 29.2 years (range, 18.0 to 56.0), respectively, at the time of the study. Among 10,397 survivors, 62.3% had at least one chronic condition; 27.5% had a severe or life-threatening condition (grade 3 or 4). The adjusted relative risk of a chronic condition in a survivor, as compared with siblings, was 3.3 (95% CI, 3.0 to 3.5); for a severe or life-threatening condition, the risk was 8.2 (95% CI, 6.9 to 9.7). Among survivors, the cumulative incidence of a chronic health condition reached 73.4% (95% CI, 69.0 to 77.9) 30 years after the cancer diagnosis, with a cumulative incidence of 42.4% (95% CI, 33.7 to 51.2) for severe, disabling, or life-threatening conditions or death due to a chronic condition.

Conclusions: Survivors of childhood cancer have a high rate of illness owing to chronic health conditions.

Indexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 17035650 (DOI 10.1056/nejmsa060185). Matched by DOI alone: one bottleneck page cites this DOI among its external links (the pages are listed under Related), and this page was written so that the citation resolves inside OnCo. No figure has been checked by an editor.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-09-22
- Tags: europepmc-ingest
- Journal: New England Journal of Medicine
- Year: 2006
- DOI: 10.1056/nejmsa060185
- Authors: Oeffinger KC, Mertens AC, Sklar CA, et al.
- What it means: One bottleneck page on OnCo cites this paper by its DOI; this record gives the citation a page of its own so a reader can follow it without leaving OnCo. Read the abstract above alongside the citing page listed under Related; the record was created automatically from the Europe PMC entry and its figures have not been checked by hand.
- Caveats: Matched to the citing OnCo records by DOI alone; the summary reproduces the Europe PMC abstract and no figure has been verified against the full paper.

## Sources

- N Engl J Med 2006: https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmsa060185
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17035650/
- Europe PMC: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/17035650

## Connected records

- bottlenecks: [Survivorship and late effects are neglected](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-survivorship/)
- journals: [New England Journal of Medicine](https://onco.cc/journals/nejm/)

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