More and more children are surviving cancer today, but many of them face an increased risk later in life of cardiovascular disease and other long-term health problems.
Researchers from the University of Gothenburg and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have investigated which factors have the greatest influence on these challenges.
The results have been published in two international studies in Nature Communications and JACC: CardioOncology and cited by News Cision.
Disease later in life
One of the studies, published in JACC: CardioOncology, included more than 2,300 individuals who had been diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma as children or adolescents.
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The researchers found that a lack of physical activity is closely associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease.
They also point out that factors such as obesity, smoking, and high alcohol consumption can affect the risk of developing disease later in life.
For this reason, they believe that former cancer patients should receive support in building and maintaining healthy habits.
The results surprised the researchers
In the second study, published in Nature Communications, the researchers followed more than 18,000 childhood cancer survivors for up to 30 years.
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The analysis showed that lifestyle factors such as physical activity, body weight, smoking, and alcohol consumption may collectively have as much, or even greater, impact on later health problems than the cancer treatments the patients previously received.
The findings therefore suggest that healthy lifestyle habits may be one of the most important ways to reduce the risk of serious long-term effects following childhood cancer.
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