Rahul Kumar, Medical Oncology Trainee at AIIMS, New Delhi, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Excited to share that our study has been published today in JCO Global Oncology!
I am sincerely grateful for the opportunity to learn from and work alongside such an inspiring team.
As childhood cancer survival continues to improve, it is increasingly important to ask a broader question: What does life look like after cure?
In this cross-sectional study of 1,098 childhood cancer survivors enrolled in our structured survivorship program at BRA IRCH, AIIMS, New Delhi, we found:
- 85% experienced disruption in education, with a median interruption of 1.75 years.
- 91.3% of families experienced catastrophic health expenditure, despite treatment at a largely subsidized public tertiary care center.
- Nearly one-third of working-age survivors reported cancer-related employment challenges.
- Relocation for treatment and family job loss significantly contributed to educational disruption and financial hardship.
These findings reinforce that survivorship extends far beyond disease-free survival. Comprehensive survivorship care must include school reintegration, financial protection, vocational rehabilitation, and psychosocial support, particularly in resource-constrained settings.
Most importantly, I thank the 1,098 childhood cancer survivors and their families who participated in our Childhood Cancer Survivorship Program. Their experiences form the foundation of this work and remind us why survivorship research matters.
I hope this study contributes to strengthening survivorship care and informs policies that improve the lives of childhood cancer survivors, not only in India but across other low- and middle-income countries.”
Title: Socioeconomic Outcomes of Childhood Cancer Survivors in India: A Cross-Sectional Study From a Tertiary Care Childhood Cancer Survivorship Program
Authors: Rahul Kumar, Archana Sasi, Shubham Sahni, Aparajita Sharma, Vedant Vaidya, Venkatesan Sampath Kumar, Rachna Meel, Shah Alam Khan, Sandeep Agarwala, Swetambri Sharma, Mamta Kumari, Shubhangi Sharma, Bhavika Tahiliani, Shivam Gupta, Poonam Bagai, Sonal Sharma, Chandan Kumar, Atul Batra, Deepam Pushpam, Shuvadeep Ganguly, Sameer Bakhshi
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