Treatment of childhood cancer can cause a wide array of physical and mental health problems, even later in life. We call these late effects. To prevent and manage late effects of childhood cancer and treatment, survivorship care is of great importance. In the Princess Máxima Center, high-quality survivorship care is offered at the LATER clinic. Yet many other paediatric cancer institutions in Europe face barriers for proper implementation of survivorship care, such as a lack of knowledge and funds. My PhD project aims to realise survivorship care implementation at these institutions, as well as improve existing survivorship care programs. Projects I am taking part in:
- PanCareFollowUp, a European, Horizon 2020 funded project where survivorship care is implemented and evaluated at 4 paediatric cancer institutions in Europe. In addition, the PanCareFollowUp team is conducting a small cohort study at the Radboud UMC and Princess Máxima Center to assess the feasibility of a person-centred lifestyle intervention.
- PanCareSurPass, another European, Horizon 2020 funded project which aims to optimise, implement and evaluate the Survivorship Passport at 6 paediatric cancer institutions in Europe.
- An IGHG guideline for metabolic syndrome. Childhood cancer survivors are at increased risk of metabolic syndrome, an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease. With this evidence-based guideline we provide recommendations for metabolic syndrome surveillance, which may help prevent cardiovascular disease in childhood cancer survivors.
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Leontien Kremer, Dr. Saskia Pluijm & Dr. Heleen van der Pal