Childhood Cancer Survivors Face Lifelong Challenges

Despite their persistence in the face of disease, survivors of childhood cancer like Lexi are at high risk for what doctors refer to as “late effects.” Chemotherapy drugs and radiation not only destroy cancer cells but also cause undetected damage to the DNA of normal cells nearby. The resulting late effects can include infertility, heart and other cardiovascular problems, neurocognitive effects, growth problems and even secondary cancers—not a metastasis but an entirely new tumor.

Read more here: http://www.newsweek.com/2015/07/31/childhood-cancer-survivors-face-lifelong-challenges-356382.html