Thoughts of suicide long after childhood cancer

[Meow-meow]

Adult survivors of childhood cancer, particularly those in poor physical health, are at increased risk for experiencing suicidal thoughts, new research shows.

This study is "one more reminder that there are long term consequences of the treatment of childhood cancer," Dr. Christopher J. Recklitis from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, told Reuters Health.

"Fortunately, most childhood cancer survivors do well in terms of their adjustment but there is a small proportion that are more likely to have some psychological adjustment problems," he added.

The findings stem from a study of 9,126 adult survivors of childhood cancer and 2,968 of their cancer-free siblings. The cancer survivors were younger than age 21 at diagnosis and were greater than 5 years from their diagnosis. Most of the cancer survivors were more than 11 years from diagnosis.

While many different cancers were represented in the study group, leukemia was the most common cancer, followed by Hodgkin's disease and cancer of the central nervous system, including brain cancer.

According to the investigators, 7.8 percent of the cancer survivors reported having had thoughts of suicide compared with just 4.5 percent of cancer-free siblings, a significant difference. The likelihood of having these thoughts was 79 percent higher in the cancer survivors than in the cancer-free siblings.

Thoughts of suicide were strongly related to indicators of poor physical health, with nearly 29 percent of cancer survivors who rated their physical health as poor having suicidal thoughts compared to only about 3 percent of survivors who rated their health as excellent.

"A greater number of chronic conditions and pain were also closely tied to suicidal thoughts," Recklitis said.

"The association of suicidal symptoms with physical health problems is important," the researchers say, "because these may be treatable conditions for which survivors seek follow-up care and underscores the need for a multidisciplinary approach to survivor care."


SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Oncology, online October 19, 2009.