From the Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Control and the Departments of Oncology and Cancer Prevention and Control, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee; Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts; and the Department of Pediatric Oncology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Authors disclosures of potential conflicts of interest are found at the end of this article.
Address reprint requests to Kirsten K. Ness, PT, PhD, Assistant Member, Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Control, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 332 North Lauderdale, Mailstop 735, Memphis, TN 38105; e-mail: kiri.ness{at}stjude.org
Overview: Pediatric sarcoma survivors have prevalent medical late effects manifested as impairments of body structure and function. These problems are fairly well documented and may lead to functional problems, including physical activity limitations and corresponding participation restrictions. Such restrictions among pediatric sarcoma survivors are less well documented. The literature in this area is almost exclusively limited to the evaluation of extremity sarcoma survivors. Instruments to document functional loss also are rare and are again limited to evaluating outcomes in extremity sarcoma survivors. This article provides a review of medical late effects, activity limitations, and participation restrictions among pediatric sarcoma survivors, and summarizes the tools used to measure these outcomes.