Psychosocial consequences of childhood cancer

This article summarizes findings regarding the psychosocial late effects of chronic childhood cancer on long-term survivors. Overall, the psychosocial adjustment of many survivors appears to be within the normally expected range. Studies that compared cancer survivors with healthy controls on standardized scales found few or no significant differences in psychopathology. However, more subtle concerns or problems related to physical impairments, vocational discrimination, economic burden, and early and open communication within the family were identified. More research is needed to fully understand these subtle difficulties and to identify intervention strategies to prevent psychosocial late effects from occurring, and to ameliorate them when they are present.