Facilitating care for childhood cancer survivors: Integrating children's oncology group long-term follow-up guidelines and health links in clinical practice

Childhood cancer survivors are a growing, vulnerable group with health care needs unique to their cancer treatments. They may experience many late physical and psychological complications (late effects) of treatment including organ dysfunction, infertility, second neoplasms, chronic hepatitis, musculoskeletal problems, alterations in cognitive function, and myriad psychosocial problems. Health care providers may be unaware of actual or potential survivor problems. Until recently, there were no clearly defined, easily accessible risk-based guidelines for cancer survivor follow-up care. This article will use a case-study approach to demonstrate how the newly developed Children's Oncology Group Long-term Follow-up Guidelines and Health Links can be used in clinical practice to improve awareness about late effects and the importance of follow-up care for childhood cancer survivors. The Children's Oncology Group Guidelines and Health Links were created by a multidisciplinary team of health care experts and patient advocates to provide a systematic plan for pediatric cancer survivor follow-up care and health education across the cancer continuum.