More and more people are living for years after treatment. Researchers should look for ways to identify and ease long-term effects.
When Gregory Aune was 16, he wasn’t particularly concerned about the lasting effects of the drugs and radiation that he was given to treat his lymphoma. “I saw kids around me die, so I felt pretty fortunate,” he says. Nearly 30 years later, Aune has a slightly different perspective. He’s still deeply grateful to have survived. But he has also dealt with hypothyroidism, diabetes, and secondary skin cancer, and has had open-heart surgery and a stroke — all thought to have been brought on by the treatment that saved his life.
