PanCareLIFE researchers in UNIBE have published ‘Hearing loss and quality of life in survivors of paediatric CNS tumours and other cancers’ in Quality of Life Research (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-018-2021-2).
Check out all our publications on Research Gate.
UMC-Mainz researchers have published an overview of the PanCareLIFE project in the German journal Onkologe, Europäische PanCare-Studien zu Spätfolgen nach Krebs im Kindes- und Jugendalter, Onkologe 2018 24:754–759.
You can read the full article here!
Our latest paper, published in the European Journal of Cancer, describes the scientific rationale for the PanCareLIFE project (103:227 – 237 (2018)).
Read more here!
The WP3 team has published their protocol paper on two fertility studies completed as part of PanCareLIFE:
Fertility Among Female Survivors of Childhood, Adolescent, and Young Adult Cancer: Protocol for Two Pan-European Studies (PanCareLIFE) in JMIR Res Protoc. (2018 14;7(9):e10824).
You can read the full open access paper here!
Check out our latest open access publication in Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology!
PanCareLIFE researchers at UNIBE have just published a new paper ‘Audiological monitoring in Swiss childhood cancer patients’, funded in part by PanCareLIFE.
Pediatric Blood & Cancer, 65(3) e26877, DOI: 10.1080/08880018.2017.1323985
Full audiological monitoring is the best strategy to detect hearing loss early and to provide timely intervention in the absence of a clinical method of otoprotection. Full monitoring requires audiological evaluation before, and then during and after ototoxic cancer treatment. In a worldwide context of monitoring protocols that vary substantially, we analyzed the audiological monitoring of childhood cancer patients over the last decade across treatment centers in Switzerland.
We retrospectively searched for audiological evaluations in all nine Swiss Pediatric Oncology Centers. We analyzed proportions of patients who had audiological monitoring and described type and timing of monitoring. We determined predictors of audiological monitoring using multivariable logistic regression and described time trends.
We included 185 patients from the Swiss Childhood Cancer Registry diagnosed from 2005 to 2013 who had platinum chemotherapy and/or cranial radiation ≥30 Gray and who were alive at time of study. Less than half of children, 43%, had full audiological monitoring (before, during, and after treatment), while 72% were tested after cancer treatment. Nonstudy patients were less likely to have had monitoring in all phases of cancer treatment. Patients who received treatment with cisplatin or both platinum chemotherapy and cranial radiation were more likely to have had monitoring after treatment. Monitoring during and after treatment increased over the study period, but monitoring before treatment was insufficient in all time periods.
Our population-based study indicates that audiological monitoring is insufficient in Switzerland, particularly for nonstudy patients. Clinicians must become more aware of the importance of full audiological monitoring.
PanCareLIFE researchers from EMC and PMC have published ‘Socio-demographic impact of platinum-induced ototoxicity in long-term survivors of childhood cancer’ (Curr Pediatr Res 2017; 21 (3): 470-479).
You can read the full open access publication here.
Objective: Childhood cancer survivors (CCS) treated with platinum-based chemotherapy are at risk of treatment-induced ototoxicity. To date, there is limited knowledge on the effect of ototoxicity on socio-demographic factors, the burden to obtain insurances and psychological distress in CCS.
Design: Of the 653 CCS with completed questionnaires, 54 survivors had been treated with platinum. Ototoxicity (Münster score ≥ 2b) data were retrieved from pure-tone audiometry. All survivors completed a questionnaire consisting of the Distress Thermometer (DT), measuring the severity of distress and was recoded to a 0 (no distress)-10 (extreme distress) scale. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was used to study the psychological distress (a score ≥ 15 is indicative for clinically significant distress).
Results: Median age at diagnosis was 6.2 years (range: 0.01-17.8) and median follow-up time from end of treatment to questionnaire was 15.6 years (range: 3.2-43.7). There were no differences in attempts to obtain insurances, highest education achievement and (un) employment between platinum-treated survivors and non-platinum treated survivors. Among the 54 platinum-treated CCS, median HADS score of hearing impaired survivors (n=22 (median score: 4.5, range: 0.0-29)) was not significantly different from survivors without ototoxicity (n=32 (median score 5.5, range: 0.0-11, p=0.337)). Similarly, DT scores were not significantly different between survivors with or without ototoxicity (p=0.441). Compared to the 599 non-platinum treated survivors, median HADS and DT scores of platinum-treated survivors were not significantly different.
Conclusion: Based on this first, small study, we didn’t find differences between CCS who suffer from platinum-related ototoxicity and survivors without hearing impairment, suggesting that CCS with ototoxicity do not necessarily encounter more socio-demographic challenges and psychological distress than CCS without ototoxicity.
PanCareLIFE researchers at EMC, VUmc, AMC, PMC and UKM have just published a new paper ‘Hearing loss after platinum treatment is irreversible in noncranial irradiated childhood cancer survivors’, funded in part by PanCareLIFE.
Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, 34:2, 120-129, DOI: 10.1080/08880018.2017.1323985
You can read the full, open access article here.
PanCareLIFE researchers at the University of Bern have just published a new paper ‘Validation of questionnaire-reported hearing with medical records: A report from the Swiss Childhood Cancer Survivor Study’, funded in part by PanCareLIFE. You can read the full, open access article here.
PanCareLIFE researchers at EMC, VUmc, AMC, PMC and UKM have published ‘Determinants of ototoxicity in 451 platinum-treated Dutch survivors of childhood cancer: A DCOG late-effects study’, funded in part by PanCareLIFE.
European Journal of Cancer (2016) 69: 77, DOI: 10.1016/j.ejca.2016.09.023
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 602030. The material presented and views expressed here are the responsibility of the author(s) only. The EU Commission takes no responsibility for any use made of the information set out.
