Throughout Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, we’re sharing stories about what childhood cancer asks of children and families—not only during treatment, but long after it ends.

This week, we turn to what comes after treatment—and why the word “survivor”, while worthy of celebration, doesn’t always tell the whole story.

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85%.

Today, about 85% of children diagnosed with cancer will live at least five years after their diagnosis.

That number represents extraordinary progress…It represents decades of research, clinical trials, better treatments, remarkable medical teams—and, most importantly, children who grow up. It deserves to be celebrated. But it doesn't tell the whole story.

Because while five-year survival is an important milestone, itisn't necessarily the end of cancer's impact on a child's life or the life of their family members.

For some children, cancer comes back. For others, the treatments that saved their lives leave consequences that may not appear until years—or even decades—later.

Heart disease. Lung problems. Endocrine disorders. Infertility. Hearing loss. Neurocognitive challenges. Emotional and psychological effects. And sometimes, another cancer.

Childhood cancer survivors face an increased risk of developing a new, second cancer later in life. These subsequent cancers are among the most serious late effects of childhood cancer and its treatment.

Think about what that means for a child and family.

They can endure chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, hospitalizations, scans, uncertainty, and fear.

They can finish treatment.

They can celebrate clear scans, birthdays, graduations, and years of survivorship.

And still, cancer may leave a footprint that follows them into adulthood.

None of this diminishes what an 85% five-year survival rate represents.

Rather, it reminds us that our responsibility to children doesn't end when treatment does.

As more children survive cancer, survivorship itself must become part of cancer care.

That means making sure survivors have access to lifelong, risk-based medical surveillance. It means understanding the treatments they received as children and the health risks those treatments may carry decades later.

And it means caring about much more than what shows up on a scan.

Mental health. Relationships. School. Work. Fertility. Financial well-being. Identity. Fear of recurrence. The transition from pediatric to adult healthcare. The challenge of carrying a medical history that may continue to matter for the rest of your life.

Families affected by childhood cancer understand something that a survival statistic cannot fully capture:

Surviving cancer and being finished with cancer are not always the same thing.

At Ukandu, we believe children and families deserve support not only while cancer is being treated, but throughout everything that comes after.

Because the goal has never simply been to help children survive. The goal is to help them live—fully, meaningfully, and surrounded by a community that keeps showing up.

The Numbers Behind the Story

85%
About 85% of children diagnosed with cancer today are alive at least five years after diagnosis. Five-year survival is an enormously important measure of progress—but it does not measure the lifelong health consequences of cancer and its treatment.

Nearly 500,000
As of 2020, approximately 500,000 people living in the United States had survived a cancer first diagnosed before age 20.

60%–90%+
Studies summarized by the National Cancer Institute find that 60% to more than 90% of childhood cancer survivors develop at least one chronic health condition. Estimates vary depending on survivors' ages, treatments, and how health conditions are measured.

53.6% by age 50
In the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, more than half of survivors had experienced a severe, disabling, life-threatening or fatal health condition by age 50, compared with 19.8% of their siblings.

17 chronic conditions by age 50
In the intensively evaluated St. Jude Lifetime Cohort, survivors had experienced an average of 17.1 chronic health conditions by age 50—including an average of 4.7 classified as severe, disabling, life-threatening or fatal.

Second cancers matter
Childhood cancer survivors have an increased risk of developing a new primary cancer later in life. Along with recurrence of the original cancer and heart and lung damage, second cancers are among the major causes of late mortality in childhood cancer survivors.

And the risk doesn't simply disappear with time.
Late effects can emerge months, years, or even decades after treatment, which is why lifelong, risk-based follow-up care matters.