A trial looking at the long term effects of treatment for children and young people who had a germ cell tumour

Cancer type:

Children's cancers

Status:

Results

Phase:

Other

This trial wanted to find out about the long term side effects Open a glossary item of treatment for germ cell tumours. It was for children and young people who had finished treatment at least 5 years previously and who had no sign of their cancer remaining (in remission ).

More about this trial

Germ cells are the cells that produce eggs in females and sperm in males. Rarely these cells become cancerous. Germ cell tumours usually develop in the testicles or ovaries, but can be found in other parts of the body.

Doctors usually treat germ cell tumours with chemotherapy. And some people will have surgery. These treatments generally work very well and most children and young people are cured.

Doctors know that the chemotherapy drugs they use might affect how well certain parts of the body work, such as the lungs and the kidneys. They wanted to understand more about how the cancer and treatment affects quality of life years later.

The aims of this trial were:

to find out what the late effects of treatment are
to understand more about how germ cell cancer and its treatment affect quality of life

The doctors wanted to use the information from this trial to improve how they follow up children’s progress after treatment.

Summary of results

The trial team have told us that they found it difficult to find enough children and young people to take part. This means they were not able to publish any results.