This page is written for young people who have had cancer treatment.
You may experience long-term difficulties that may be the result of the disease or the treatment you had. It depends on the type of cancer, type of treatment, and your thinking (cognitive) and learning ability before treatment. Sometimes, difficulties with thinking and learning show up several years after treatment.
Some people who have had childhood cancer have more difficulty with thinking and learning than their peers. But, it is important to remember that everybody is different. For many, there are no difficulties at all.
Check out an introduction to long-term follow-up in childhood cancer [1]
Difficulties in these areas may affect your everyday functioning - the skills you need to cope with day to day life including home, school, and social activities.
Several factors may increase the likelihood of difficulties with thinking and learning.
These include:
Before the assessment, a member of your healthcare team will talk with you and/or your parent about the purpose of the assessment and ask if you want to go ahead with this.
If you decide to go ahead, the assessment will take up to 6 hours of face to face contact between you and the clinical psychologist/neuropsychologist. Sometimes, this will happen over 2 sessions. As part of the assessment, the clinical psychologist/neuropsychologist will ask you and your parents some more questions about your development and the things you find difficult with your thinking, learning and behaviour. The clinical psychologist/neuropsychologist will then usually meet with you on your own to do some tasks and problem-solving activities.
The clinical psychologist/neuropsychologist will talk with you about the results and answer any questions you have. After that, you and your healthcare team will get a report. The report will include the findings and recommendations for what might be helpful. You will get extra copies to give to school and anyone else who you think would find it helpful.
All the pages in the childhood cancer section of this website [3] have been written by health professionals who work in the field of paediatric oncology. They have been reviewed by the members of the National Child Cancer Network (NZ). Medical information is authorised by the clinical leader of the National Child Cancer Network.
This page last reviewed 24 June 2021.
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Links
[1] https://www.kidshealth.org.nz/introduction-long-term-follow-childhood-cancer?language=en
[2] https://www.kidshealth.org.nz/tags/long-term-follow-childhood-cancer?language=en
[3] https://www.kidshealth.org.nz/tags/childhood-cancer?language=en
[4] https://www.kidshealth.org.nz/contact?from=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kidshealth.org.nz%2Fprint%2F1214%3Flanguage%3Dzh-hans