Photo courtesy of
Huntsman Cancer Institute
A new study indicates that childhood cancer survivors (CCSs) are more likely than individuals without a cancer history to enroll on federal programs that provide disability benefits.
CCSs diagnosed between 1970 and 1986 were about 2 to 5 times as likely as control subjects to utilize such a program.
“The long-term impact of cancer can affect other issues besides health outcomes,” said study author Anne Kirchhoff, PhD, of the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah.
“We need to do a better job of helping people function throughout their lives, not just when they’re finishing their cancer therapy.”
Dr Kirchhoff and her colleagues conducted this research and detailed the results in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
The researchers looked at health insurance surveys completed in 2011 and 2012 by a random sample of 698 CCSs who were diagnosed between the ages of 0 and 20 years. Today, they range in age from 20s to early 60s.
The patients are part of a National Cancer Institute initiative, called the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, which has followed more than 14,000 children and adolescents since 1994 who were diagnosed with cancer and survived at least 5 years after diagnosis. A comparison group of 210 siblings without cancer also responded to the survey and were used as controls.
Dr Kirchhoff and her colleagues looked at current or former enrollment on 2 federal disability programs:
- Supplemental security income (SSI), which is for people with limited income who have no prior work history
- Social security disability insurance (SSDI), which pays disability benefits to adults ages 18 years and older who have worked and paid social security taxes.
In all, 13.5% of CCSs reported being enrolled on SSI in the past or present, and 10% of survivors reported being enrolled on SSDI at some point. This was substantially higher than for the comparison group, in which 2.6% of patients reported SSI enrollment and 5.4% reported SSDI enrollment.
In addition, CCSs reported current enrollment in SSI more frequently than the US population, at rates of 7.3% and 2.5%, respectively.
Dr Kirchoff and her colleagues also identified survivor socio-demographic and treatment characteristics that were associated with a higher rate of enrollment in federal support programs.
“Survivors that were younger at diagnosis, age 4 or under, were about 7 times more likely to be on SSI than we see with survivors that were diagnosed in their adolescence,” she said.
SSI enrollment was more likely for female CCSs and for survivors with a history of cranial radiation treatment as well.
Dr Kirchhoff noted that, over the years, research on CCSs has caused hospitals to rethink how to better care for cancer survivors.
“There’s really a growing strategy to support survivors in the long-term,” she said. “For example, here at Huntsman Cancer Institute, we have a pediatric cancer late-effects clinic, which helps manage issues that might come up with childhood cancer survivors in the long term, including health-management support, health-behavior support, and access to providers to help them with other issues.”
