Childhood, adolescent, and early adulthood cancer treatments can have lasting physical and psychosocial effects that persist well into late adulthood. Although established guidelines for monitoring late effects in paediatric patients exist, there is a lack of standardized approaches for managing these patients once they transition into adult care.
The Late Effects Clinic at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre was founded in 2000 to provide continuous monitoring and coordinated care for patients at risk of complications due to cancer treatments received earlier in life. The clinic, held weekly, is staffed by paediatric radiation oncologists, with additional support from clinical nurse consultants, haematologists, cardiologists, and endocrinologists. To date, the clinic has supported over 1,500 patients. Given the growing demand and limited resources, there is a pressing need to evaluate our current model of care and explore alternative models to continue to address the long-term effects of cancer treatment.