Patients who have recovered from childhood cancers represent an emblematic group particularly suited for studying clinical follow-up pathways and psycho-physical, social, and occupational rehabilitation: the quality of diagnosis is generally very good and well documented, treatment is mostly carried out in specialized facilities and based on carefully tested and continuously updated protocols; this allows for easier study of the pathways following the treatment phase. However, due to the length of the observation period required, there are only scattered data globally on the prevalence in the general population of adults of all ages who survived cancer in childhood, and many survivors of pediatric cancers are now adults (long-term survivors) entering age groups at risk for chronic-degenerative diseases.

The CHILDPREV project, funded by the Ministry of Health (CCM 2012), aims, among other objectives, to provide a comprehensive epidemiological overview of the prevalence, incidence, and trends of childhood cancers in order to assess their future evolution.

In this context, the number of prevalent adults of all ages who survived cancer in childhood has been estimated using ad hoc statistical methods. Specifically, the Childprev method (Simonetti, Gigli, Capocaccia, Mariotto, 2008) was applied to data from Cancer Registries that had at least 15 years of incidence data and vital status follow-up, to obtain the estimate of complete prevalence in adulthood (15+) for all cancers combined, and for the most frequent prevalent sites among children who develop cancer: Hodgkin lymphomas, acute lymphocytic leukemias, and central nervous system tumors

Francisci, Guzzinati, Dal Maso, Sacerdote, Buzzoni, Gigli (2017). Living after cancer diagnosis during childhood: A population-based estimation in Italy. International Journal of Cancer http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ijc.30665/full