Follow-up guidelines and literature review: late endocrine sequelae after treatment of oncologic disease in pediatric age

In the last three decades the survival rate of children diagnosed with cancer improved dramatically, resulting in a large population of childhood cancer survivors. Currently, with the help of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery and other treatments the global 5-year survival rate approaches 80%. In the case of Portugal there are about 350 new cases of cancer diagnosed in children between 0 and 18 years and the survival rate is about 75%. So it must be able to recognize and treat the therapy-related early and late effects; the endocrine disturbs are very frequent, with repercussion in growth, puberty, fertility, corporal composition, bone density and thyroid gland. The aim of the authors is to do a brief revision of the literature regarding the late endocrine sequelae of the several kinds of treatments and to establish a screening and follow-up scheme to these patients. (C) 2014 Sociedade Portuguesa de Endocrinologia, Diabetes e Metabolismo. Published by Elsevier Espafia, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license