The effects of chemotherapy on the long-term survivors of malignancy

It is estimated that by the year 2000 one in a thousand 20-year-olds will be a survivor of childhood cancer. Increasingly, chemotherapy alone is being used because of concerns about the long-term effects of radiotherapy. However, chemotherapy may also have long-term effects particularly on growth and body composition, cardiac function and fertility. Other important late effects include renal and lung toxicity, hearing impairment, neuro-psychological sequalae and secondary leukaemias.