Respiratory Care Considerations in the Childhood Cancer Patient

Abstract

This article reviews the common pulmonary complications seen in the pediatric oncology population and our approach to diagnosis, management, and therapy considerations in this specialized population, including patients receiving chemotherapy, radiation, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Although infections cause the most significant complications in this population, non-infectious complications, including acute lung injury from chemotherapy or radiation, idiopathic interstitial pneumonia, diffuse alveolar hemorrhage, bronchiolitis obliterans, and cryptogenic organizing pneumonia, also occur commonly. With improvements in survival of childhood cancer, there are now a growing number of adults who are childhood cancer survivors who may be encountered by therapists in adult hospitals. We also review the growing literature on the emerging late pulmonary findings in these adult childhood cancer survivors.

Keywords: bronchiolitis oblterans; chemotherapy; childhood cancer; hematopoietic stem cell transplantation; interstitial pneumonia; pnemonia; pulmonary hemorrhage; radiation.