Explaining psychosocial outcomes after childhood cancer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Developing and piloting a questionnaire to help explain psychological and social outcomes in young adult survivors of childhood and adolescent cancer
IRAS ID
99312
Contact name
Mark Pearce
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 1 days
Research summary
More children and young people are surviving cancer than ever before. However, it is now recognized that cancer and its treatment may lead to problems for the young person several years after completing therapy. At least 60-70% of childhood cancer survivors (CCS) have at least one chronic health problem and some groups of CCS are at risk of cognitive late effects which can harm attention and memory. In addition, a survivor’s psychological and social (psychosocial) development may be affected and it has been reported that survivors may have problems in education, employment and relationships. Their body image and self-esteem may also be affected and they may have worries about their future health or their ability to have children.
Although studies have investigated what the psychosocial consequences of cancer are for CCS, relatively little has been done to fully understand why and in what way cancer may affect a young person’s life-path several years after treatment. Results often vary between studies and research tends to describe the differences between cancer survivors and people of the same age group without trying to explain why the differences exist and why they develop in some survivors but not others.
We have developed a questionnaire which we hope will help us to gain a fuller understanding of the factors which are associated with, and may determine poorer, future psychosocial outcomes for CCS. We plan to pilot this questionnaire in a sample of adult survivors of childhood cancer. The end-point of this research is that if successful, this questionnaire will enable us to identify those survivors most at risk of adverse outcomes and will be able to develop interventions which could improve outcomes for CCS.
REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/NE/0003
Date of REC Opinion
19 Jan 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion