Adult survivors of children's cancer and their offspring.

BACKGROUND

Although it is anticipated in Japan that the number of long-term survivors of children's cancer will rapidly increase and that they will have children, reports of studies concerning the offspring of such survivors have come mainly from western countries. For this reason, it seems that the results of this study will be important.

METHODS

Ninety-seven survivors of children's cancer, who were diagnosed between 1962 and 1989 and are now older than 20 years old, and their offspring were studied.

RESULTS

Of 97 survivors, 30 have married and 23 survivors or their spouses had been pregnant (33 total pregnancies). Twenty-five babies were born and seven pregnancies ended in spontaneous abortion. The abortion rate was not different from that of the Japanese general population. The birthweights of babies born to survivors tended to be lower than those of control subjects. The proportion of babies with birthweights under 2500 g was significantly greater for babies born to survivors than to the control subjects. None of the 25 babies born had congenital anomalies. Subsequent development of these children has been uneventful with no malignancies after a median follow-up period of 4 years 10 months (range: 10 months to 16 years, 3 months).

CONCLUSIONS

The reproductive activity of children's cancer survivors and the health status of their offspring seem to be satisfactory. However, the sample size of the present study is too small to draw any definite conclusions. Because it is anticipated that the number of long-term survivors of children's cancer will rapidly increase in Japan, it is important to establish an effective system of following up these survivors and their offspring in order to provide them with appropriate suggestions for a better quality of life.