Adult Survivors of Childhood Cancer Have Excess Risk for Endocrine Disorders

Adult survivors of childhood cancers are at risk for late complications, including second malignancies, cardiovascular disease, renal disease, and endocrine disorders, but these long-term risks have not been characterized precisely. Researchers in Denmark examined national population and tumor registries in the five Nordic countries with data going back as far as 65 years to identify almost 32,000 survivors of cancers diagnosed before age 20 and a randomly selected group of 220,000 childhood cancer–free age-, sex-, and country-matched controls. Participants' first known inpatient and outpatient hospital contacts for endocrine disorders were identified using national hospital registries.

Childhood cancer survivors were much more likely than c…