Children’s Health Foundation Tallaght
The Project is Quantifying Second Malignancy Rates and Identifying Cancer.
Predisposition Syndromes in the Irish Paediatric Oncology Population
Project Area Childhood Cancer. Project Timeline 24 months.
Project Summary
Improvements in paediatric oncology care over recent decades have led to increasing survival rates
amongst children with cancer. Despite this success, many childhood cancer survivors (CCS) develop
long-term complications of cancer therapy, including the development of second cancers, which can
significantly affect their quality of life and overall survival. Recognised risk factors for the development
of cancers in children and young adults include exposure to chemotherapy and radiation therapy as
part of cancer treatment, genetic cancer predisposition and interplay between genes and the
environment.
There is limited data available on the incidence of, and risk factors for, the development of second
cancers in CCS in Ireland. This study will first describe the Irish CCS population, existing second cancer
rates and relevant treatment exposures, through the interrogation of existing national registries and
health records. This data will then act as a platform upon which to prospectively apply risk prediction
models developed through previous work, to CCS in Ireland, and to children presenting with primary
cancers.
This initiative will permit the future development of a successful programme of care relevant to the
Irish childhood, adolescent and young adult population, incorporating survivorship and surveillance
strategies and genetic risk assessment through several strategies. These include enhancing the
identification of those at increased risk of developing cancer/second cancers and assisting in the
streamlining of referrals for genetic evaluation where appropriate, together with the development
of individualised survivorship and surveillance programmes based on prior exposures and genetic
risk for second cancer development.
Required funding over 2 years circa €150k