Investigation of pubertal development in patients aged 6-18 years with a diagnosis of solid tumor and lymphoma WHO are at LEAST 1 year after the end of treatment in remission or cure state

Treatment-related late effects are more common with increased survival in childhood cancers. One of the endocrine late effects is pubertal disorders. In addition, endocrinological problems such as obesity, growth and development retardation, malnutrition, thyroid and pituitary problems may occur together with pubertal disorder in survivors of childhood cancers. In this study, it was aimed to examine pubertal development and to investigate some endocrine late effects that may affect pubertal development in patients diagnosed with lymphoma and solid tumor and recovered. 101 childhood cancer survivors and 101 healthy children were included in the study and puberty was evaluated comparatively. In addition, endocrine late effects that may accompany pubertal disorders such as pituitary insufficiency and hypothyroidism were investigated in the patient group. In our study, pubertal disorder in 7 patients (6.9%), short stature in 14 patients (13.8%), malnutrition in 13 patients (12.9%), obesity in 16 patients (15.9%), hypothyroidism in 23 patients (22%, 7), pituitary insufficiency in 18 patients (17.8%) and gonadal insufficiency in 3 patients (2.9%) and some of them were found to be associated. In conclusion, our study has shown that treatment-related pubertal disorders and many endocrine late effects such as hypothyroidism and gonadal insufficiency can be seen with considerable frequency in survivors of childhood cancers. We think that pediatricians may develop pubertal and endocrine late effects on children who survived pediatric cancer, and that follow-up and examination should be done with this awareness. Keywords: Childhood cancers, endocrine late effects, pubertal disorders.