Who can enter
- Children who previously participated in the SENSORY-2 study
- They were between 6 and 18 years at that time
- And were treated with chemotherapy
Goal
The aim of this study is to investigate if smell and taste changes completely resolve after treatment with chemotherapy. Many children with cancer experience smell and taste changes during chemotherapy. These changes in smell and taste can be very confusing for children and can make it extremely difficult for them to keep eating enough. Unfortunately, hardly any evidence is available about smell and taste function in childhood cancer survivors, so we do not yet know how long these smell and taste changes last.
Therefore, we aim to investigate smell and taste function of children who have had chemotherapy 2 to 5 years ago. With this we hope to be able to give better advice in the future to children with cancer who suffer from changes in their smell and taste, and what to expect.
Background
We previously studied changes in smell and taste during chemotherapy, the SENSORY-2 study. That study showed that many children suffer from changes in smell and taste. Sometimes children lost their taste, or tastes were very different than before. But also many children could smell very well during chemotherapy.
In the SENSORY-2 study, we particularly focused on smell and taste during treatment and very shortly afterwards. Now we are interested in smell and taste function of childhood cancer survivors.
Therefore, we are asking children who had chemotherapy 2 to 5 years ago, and participated in the SENSORY-2 study at that time, to do another smell and taste test. We combine these tests with a regular visit to the hospital. In addition, we ask parents to fill in questionnaires at home about quality of life and eating behavior and to fill in a food diary.