Más allá de la cura: la necesidad de implementar un sistema de seguimiento a largo plazo para los supervivientes de cáncer infantil en Colombia

With the advent of high-quality, multidisciplinary treatments, the overall 5-year cancer survival in the pediatric population has improved considerably, reaching as much as 80% in high-income countries. In Colombia, there has also been a progressive increase in overall 5-year survival, particularly for hematologic malignancies. Consequently, the number of survivors of childhood cancer has increased significantly in recent years and, together with them, the appearance of late adverse events related to increased morbidity and risk of premature death in adulthood. Although follow-up strategies have been implemented for childhood cancer survivors in high-income countries, few efforts have been made in Colombia to implement these strategies. In fact, the common practice in most treatment centers is to discharge the child who has undergone 5 years of cancer follow-up, without precise instructions for long-term follow-up. The objective of this paper is to argue about the need to design and implement follow-up strategies for survivors of childhood cancer in the Colombian context.