Monitoring Late Treatment Effects

The treatment of malignant diseases in childhood is extremely complex, demanding, and difficult. It involves the administration of various toxic drugs, as well as a series of painful and challenging medical procedures, often including surgeries and radiotherapy. Going through all these medical processes is not easy and is very demanding both physically and psychologically.

However, very often, it does not end with a cure for the malignant disease. In a large number of cases, early and late treatment-related effects appear during adolescence and youth. These effects vary depending on the type of diagnosis and the applied treatment protocol. For adequate monitoring, recognition, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of early/late effects, the existence of an organized system for monitoring treatment-related effects is necessary. Developed countries in Europe strive to establish such systems, and we have also initiated activities to establish such a system in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

We start this story in the Sarajevo Canton with a pilot project in collaboration with the University Clinical Center of Sarajevo and the Sarajevo Canton under the supervision of the Clinical Center of Ljubljana and with the support of Lions Club Sarajevo Center. The plan is to transfer the good practices of this project to other clinical centers/hospitals where children diagnosed with cancer are treated and monitored after the implementation of this project.