Having cancer in childhood means that you spend the rest of your life being a so-called survivor. What often is not spoken about is the fact that childhood cancer survivors are at significantly higher risk of developing a new cancer later in life.

In fact, some studies have shown that they're at more than six-fold increase in risk of developing a new cancer, relative to the general population. The cumulative incidence of second cancers after 25 years was 3.5 per cent.

The most common types of childhood cancers include leukemias, lymphomas, cancers of the central nervous system (CNS), bone and soft tissue sarcomas. Most common subsequent cancers include cancers of the female breast, brain, bone, thyroid gland, and soft tissue, as well as melanoma of the skin and acute non-lymphocytic leukemia (ANLL).

The risk of the new tumour is related to effects from either radiotherapy or chemotherapy, as well as perhaps the genetic reasons cancer occurred in the first place.
 
This week, new research from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study is being presented at an American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Florida. It shows that less than half the cancer survivors in their study received mammograms, colonoscopies or skin cancer screenings as often as they should have.
 
In this study, the authors looked at screening behaviors among 8,318 cancer survivors in the United States and Canada, more than 2,660 of their siblings and 8,318 healthy people.
 
The authors report that of the cancer survivors who were at increased risk for a second cancer because of radiation, less than 12 per cent got a colonoscopy every five years -- as recommended for survivors. Less than half had had a mammogram within the two previous years, and only 27 per cent had a skin screen for one of the most common radiation-linked cancer is this population.
 
When looking at siblings or the general population, the rates were all better (although colonoscopy was recommended only every 10 years here).
 
Many patients are unaware of the kinds of treatments they have received and many are also uninformed about the fact they are at increased risk of developing cancer again. The kinds of surveillance they need is not being passed on to these patients.
 
In some instances, individuals who have had cancer have had enough of doctors and tests and shy away. In other instances, patients report that when they asked to have a test they were often looked at as paranoid or worried for no reason.
 
From my perspective, while I meet the criteria of the definition for "survivor," I think of myself as a cancer "thriver." It is most important that anyone with a cancer diagnosis, and particularly those whose malignancies were in the childhood period, be proactive about their subsequent follow-up and need for surveillance in all areas of health.