As many as 40 percent of the more than 300,000 adults in the United States who have survived childhood cancer report symptoms such as pain, fatigue, sleep disturbance, psychological distress or difficulty concentrating.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have received a two-year $500,000 federal grant to examine how these symptoms are linked together. The study will use data from 7,100 survivors who are enrolled in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, the world’s largest national cohort of childhood cancer survivors.

Prior to 1970, most children who were diagnosed with cancer had slim chances of being cured, said Lorna Finnegan, assistant professor of health systems science in the UIC College of Nursing and principal investigator of the study. Today, five-year survival rates for many childhood cancers are close to 90 percent.

The survivors, Finnegan said, are “at high-risk for experiencing chronic health problems, life-threatening conditions, other cancers, and disabilities that persist or arise many years after they complete cancer treatments.”

In the new study, UIC researchers will classify survivors into groups based on the clustering together of symptoms of pain, fatigue, problems sleeping, psychological distress, and difficulty concentrating.

The long-term goal, Finnegan said, is to develop programs and therapies that match the needs of groups with troublesome symptom profiles.

Finnegan and her colleagues have conducted a preliminary research study in 100 adult survivors of childhood cancers and developed the model for grouping survivors based on their symptoms that will be employed in the new study. The study appeared in the August issue of Journal of Pain and Symptom Management.

The new study is funded by the National Cancer Institute, one of the National Institutes of Health. Finnegan’s co-investigators include Richard Campbell, professor of biostatistics in the UIC School of Public Health; and Carol Ferrans, professor and associate dean for research in the UIC College of Nursing.

Source:  University of Illinois at Chicago