Childhood Cancer and Late Cardiac Outcomes

Survivors of cancer during childhood or adolescence are at substantial risk for congestive heart failure, MI, pericardial disease, and valvular abnormalities related to their cancer therapy. Indeed, cardiovascular events constitute the most common nonmalignant cause of death before age 61 in this population. Investigators used data from the U.S. multi-institutional Childhood Cancer Survivor Study to conduct a cross-sectional, retrospective analysis of cardiovascular outcomes in 14,358 patients who survived at least 5 years after receiving a diagnosis of leukemia, brain cancer, Hodgkin lymphoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, kidney cancer, neuroblastoma, soft tissue sarcoma, or bone cancer between 1970 and 1987, compared with 3899 of the patients' s…