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Excess mortality related to late effects of radiation therapy and chemotherapy is a well-recognized risk for survivors of pediatric, adolescent, and young-adult cancer.
To evaluate how changes in childhood cancer treatments have affected mortality trends, U.S. and Canadian investigators compared rates and causes of death by decade of therapy in approximately 34,000 cancer survivors; initial diagnosis was received by 9400 of these survivors in the 1970s, by 13,200 in the 1980s, and by 11,400 in the 1990s. All survivors were younger than 21 years of age at initial cancer treatment and were alive more than 5 years after diagnosis. Most were treated for acute leukemia, lymphoma, or primary central nervous system malignancy.
Deaths from relapse or…