Article: Teenagers not told of cancer treatment risks (infertility)

[John Jacobus <crispy_bird@YAHOO.COM>]

This article can be found at 

http://www.auntminnie.com/default.asp?Sec=nws&Sub=rad&Pag=dis&ItemId=61700&whereFrom=H_LFTE_2004_5_12&d=1



--------------

Teenagers not told of cancer treatment risks-study

5/11/04

By: Reuters Health



LONDON (Reuters), May 11 - More than two-thirds of

British teenagers with cancer are not being warned

that treatments they receive could cause infertility,

a cancer charity said on Monday. 

Sixty-six percent of 450 teenagers with cancer who

were questioned at a recent conference said they had

not been counseled about fertility issues before they

were treated for the disease. 



Half the adolescents who had been told about the side

effects of the treatment were not satisfied with the

information they had been given. Others were told when

it was too late to do anything about it. 



"One might think fertility is not an issue for a 13-

or 14-year-old teenager with cancer. Views expressed

this weekend demonstrated that the opposite is true.

Teenagers must be given a choice," Simon Davies, head

of the Teenage Cancer Trust, said in a statement. 



Cancer is the most common cause of natural death in

teenagers. About 1,500 new cases are diagnosed each

year in Britain. Leukaemia, lymphoma and brain tumors

are the most common types of cancer affecting children

and teenagers.



Three-quarters of the teenagers questioned for the

survey said they were in wards with young children or

adults but most would have preferred to be in wards

with other adolescents. 



Ninety percent of the teenagers questioned in the poll

said they would be willing to travel up to two hours

or more to receive treatment in a hospital that caters

for teenagers and young adults with cancer. 



Last Updated: 2004-05-10 12:59:46 -0400 (Reuters

Health)







=====

+++++++++++++++++++

"We cannot escape danger, or the fear of danger, by crawling into bed and pulling the covers over our heads."

-- Franklin Delano Roosevelt



-- John

John Jacobus, MS

Certified Health Physicist

e-mail:  crispy_bird@yahoo.com





	

		

__________________________________

Do you Yahoo!?

Yahoo! Movies - Buy advance tickets for 'Shrek 2'

http://movies.yahoo.com/showtimes/movie?mid=1808405861 

************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To

unsubscribe, send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the

text "unsubscribe radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail,

with no subject line. You can view the Radsafe archives at

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/