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Frailty in childhood cancer survivors
Author(s) -
Ness Kirsten K.,
Armstrong Gregory T.,
Kundu Mondira,
Wilson Carmen L.,
Tchkonia Tamara,
Kirkland James L.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/cncr.29211
Subject(s) - medicine , childhood cancer , psychological intervention , cancer , weakness , gerontology , late effect , young adult , psychiatry , surgery
Young adult childhood cancer survivors are at an increased risk of frailty, a physiologic phenotype typically found among older adults. This phenotype is associated with new‐onset chronic health conditions and mortality among both older adults and childhood cancer survivors. Mounting evidence suggests that poor fitness, muscular weakness, and cognitive decline are common among adults treated for childhood malignancies, and that risk factors for these outcomes are not limited to those treated with cranial radiation. Although the pathobiology of this phenotype is not known, early cellular senescence, sterile inflammation, and mitochondrial dysfunction in response to initial cancer or treatment‐related insults are hypothesized to play a role. To the authors' knowledge, interventions to prevent or remediate frailty among childhood cancer survivors have not been tested to date. Pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and lifestyle interventions have demonstrated some promise. Cancer 2015;121:1540–1547 . © 2014 American Cancer Society .