Introduction: The present investigation was based on a survey in 2005, in which the authors found pulmonary function abnormalities in survivors of childhood cancer, who were treated with anticancer therapy.
Aim: The purpose of the present study was to follow-up childhood cancer survivors and detect late pulmonary toxicity.
Patients and methods: Lung function test was performed with spirometry in 26 survivors participated in this study (10 females and 16 males; mean age, 19.4 years at the time of the second follow-up evaluation). The average time periods from treatment until the first and second follow-up evaluation were 4.5 and 10 years, respectively.
Results: The authors found 14 patients with pathological pulmonary function tests results at the time of the first follow-up evaluation, from which 7 patients had obstructive, 5 patients had mixed and 2 patients had restrictive abnormalities. However, there were only 6 patients who had abnormal pulmonary function at the time of the second follow-up evaluation (2 patients with obstructive and 4 patients with restrictive pulmonary function tests (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Restrictive pulmonary disorder was detected in only small part of the treated patients. The obstructive pulmonary abnormalities caused by the treatment showed an improving tendency over time.