Cardiac and Vascular Late Sequelae in Long-term Survivors of Childhood Cancer (CVSS): a Multidisciplinary Clinical, Epidemiological and Genetic Approach

Due to remarkable advances in childhood cancer therapy the 10-year survival rate increased to over 80% and late sequelae come to the fore. Childhood cancer survivors (CCS) suffer from significant excess in mortality risk associated with treatment-related complications at least for 25 years after the initial cancer diagnosis. In particular, the prevalence of cardiovascular disease seems to be elevated compared to the general population. The CVSS study is a multi-disciplinary cooperation project between the Institute for Medical Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics (IMBEI) and the German Childhood Cancer Registry (GCCR), the Preventive Cardiology and Preventive Medicine and the Pediatric Hematology and Oncology all at the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. The central element is a thorough clinical cardiovascular examination of all patients, which permits detecting subclinical disease. Therapy data will be extracted retrospectively from various sources. The study intends to describe the current situation of a cohort of approximately 1000 CCS in Germany aged 24 to 49 years with respect to cardiovascular health. The role of risk factors (treatment related and classic cardiovascular risk factors), as well as related predisposing genetic factors is investigated. The results will contribute to recommendations to improve follow-up care.