Quality of life in adult survivors of childhood cancer

Sixty-four adult survivors of childhood cancer, recruited via Israel's larg est pediatric cancer treatment center, participated in a multi-dimensional assessment of long-term adjustment and quality of life in the domains of ed ucational achievement, employment status, military service, family status, health, and psychological well-being. Subjects had been diagnosed with canc er prior to age 18, were three years or more off therapy with no evidence o f disease, and over 18 years old at the time of the study. Data from struct ured interviews were compared to responses on similar items from a control group with no history of serious illness during childhood, matched for age, sex, and parental education levels. Results indicated an overall pattern o f integration into the social mainstream, with similar objective levels of achievement for survivors and controls for most measures of education, empl oyment, significant relationships, and psychological well-being. Results al so indicated certain areas of disadvantage, such as military recruitment di fficulties, lower income levels, and higher rates of workplace rejection. S ignificantly, almost half of the survivor sample reported subjective feelin gs that their illness experience had impaired their achievement in several domains. Quality of life is considered an important outcome parameter in te rms of clinical decision making as well as in guiding preventive and suppor tive intervention efforts.