Psychosocial status of young adult survivors of childhood cancer: a survey.

The majority of childhood cancer patients now can expect to survive into early adulthood, cured of their cancer. Current adult survivors are a diverse group in terms of diagnosis, age at diagnosis, and types of treatment. It is estimated that by 1990, 1 in every 1,000 twenty-year-olds will have had cancer, making it important to describe the long-term psychosocial adjustment of this population. Patients who were diagnosed between 1948 and 1975 while less than 16 years of age, who were currently 18 years or older, had been off therapy for at least 5 years, and had no known brain damage were eligible for this survey and were identified through the tumor registry at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHP). Initially, the parents were contacted by letter. Ninety-five (57%) of the 167 eligible patients participated in a telephone interview, which covered educational achievement, occupational status, interpersonal relationships, marital status, pregnancies, employee benefits and insurance, and medical and health behaviors. Respondents were not different from nonrespondents in terms of sex, year of diagnosis, age at diagnosis, diagnoses, stage of illness, or type of treatments. There were no differences in terms of education, marital status, fertility issues, or occupational status by diagnosis group, age at diagnosis, or treatments. The patients were compared to siblings over 18 years of age in terms of education and marital status. No significant differences in sex distribution or years of education between patients and siblings were found. The siblings were, as a group, older than the patients and were more likely to be married. In general, these patients were functioning normally, but there are many unexplored areas of interpersonal relationships and productivity that need further study before conclusions regarding psychosocial adjustment of childhood cancer survivors can be drawn.