Breeonne was living the college life on campus — going to classes, going to parties, and certainly not thinking about cancer. Then one day, she felt like a 600-pound weight was on her chest and ended up in the emergency room. The cause: rare tumors crushing her left lung. 

“I was just so young,” recalls Breeonne, who was 19 years old at her diagnosis. 

At the start of treatment, doctors discussed some of the long-term side effects of chemotherapy, including the impact it could have on her fertility. She decided to try to freeze her eggs for the future, employing her cousin to help her with hormone shots. But the retrieval was unsuccessful, and Breeonne decided to move on. Throughout treatment, she continued with her college life and toward the end, when she felt her worst, she still found moments of joy resting at her parent’s house and binge-watching Glee. She’d carry this dedication to living and finding joy through treatment, surgery to remove her left lung, a second cancer diagnosis, and even today, through continued childhood cancer survivorship follow-up and health concerns.

“I live to find joy in every day,” said Breeonne, who now is the mother of two young boys.

For childhood cancer survivors like Breeonne, survivorship brings with it complicated emotions. There are the hard parts of health follow-up, but there is also the perspective that Breeonne lives and breathes (albeit with one lung) every day:

“Keep living while you are dealing with cancer and after, because you are still alive,” said Breeonne. 

Here are five childhood cancer survivorship facts:

1.    There are nearly 500,000 childhood cancer survivors in the United States. 
Survivorship is often tracked as being alive five years following diagnosis. For children, many of whom are diagnosed before they are 5 years old, survivorship begins in childhood, and continues through adulthood. 

2.    Survivorship means you are free of cancer cells; but not necessarily free of cancer’s impact. 
Approximately 95% of childhood cancer survivors experience a significant late term side effect by the time they are 45 years old.  

Tony wasn’t yet 3 years old when he was first diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a type of childhood cancer that causes solid tumors in the body. He endured grueling treatment which caused immediate side effects like nausea, hair loss, and immune system suppression. Tony finished treatment. His hair grew back. His stomach felt better. He was a childhood cancer survivor — tumor free. But Tony wasn’t free of the late effects of childhood cancer. 

Tony would find himself dealing with a myriad of issues: hearing loss, anemia, dental issues, and a processing delay that made school more challenging. He followed up with his oncology clinic doctors who also tracked his kidney function, and in 2017, over 10 years after his original diagnosis, Tony found himself facing kidney failure. His father gave him a kidney, and after months of complications and hospitalizations, Tony recovered. 

For survivors like Tony, childhood cancer follow-up will forever be part of his life. 

3.    Childhood cancer treatments can impact learning, memory, and school performance. 
Treatments can cause many issues for children in school — from fatigue to longer term struggles with learning and with memory. All children who’ve endured cancer treatment should be screened and monitored for learning challenges that can pop up even years after treatment. In addition, some studies show that adult survivors have a higher risk of developing cognitive impairments later in adulthood. 

For school-age children, the ALSF Guide for Schools is a helpful resource to help school staff understand the impact of childhood cancer. 

4.    Survivorship follow-up is critical to long-term health.
Ryan was just 22 months old when he was diagnosed with ependymoma, a type of brain tumor. Now 14 years old, Ryan still sees doctors in survivor clinic every 18 months to run routine bloodwork, check his cardiac and thyroid function, and run other clinical tests. While he is not expected to relapse with ependymoma, his medical team remains on the watch for other late side-effects.  

The Children’s Oncology Group has created follow-up guidelines for childhood cancer survivors, like Ryan, to catch and address late side-effects early. These follow-up visits are critical, and will continue far beyond the pediatric clinic. 

5.    Safer treatments hold hope for survivors. 
When Brynn relapsed with a brain tumor, her parents turned to a cutting-edge clinical trial that used immunotherapy for her treatment. The treatment worked, and Brynn remains cancer-free today. While she continues with routine follow-ups, she is living her best cancer- and side-effect-free life. 

In addition to the development of new, less-harsh treatments, researchers are also studying how to reduce chemotherapy doses and how adding different therapies can protect the heart and other organs of the body. These studies offer hope for long-term, side-effect-free survival — the kind that Brynn is now living. 

 “Life is horseback riding and playing basketball and dancing and going to Taylor Swift concerts,” said Jessica, Brynn’s mom.

Looking for survivorship resources? Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation publishes Childhood Cancer Survivors: A Practical Guide to Your Future (fourth edition), which is available on our website and in Alex's Shop.