Complications of treatment encountered in lymphoma-leukemia long-term survivors

Abstract

Potential posttreatment complications for patients with the lymphomas and leukemia include: 1) impairment of growth and development in children, 2) CNS disturbances encompassing psychologic, intellectual and neurologic expressions, 3) gonadal effects—endocrine, reproductive, teratogenic and genetic, 4) dysfunction of other organs and structures, such as the thyroid, lung and heart, and 5) oncogenesis. Many of these adversities are occasioned by radiation therapy, but chemotherapy also can be responsible for some long-term deleterious consequences. The results of combined chemo- and radiation therapy are becoming better understood, and require further elucidation because earlier stages of the disease are being managed by combined chemo- and radiation therapy regimens.