Educational attainment among long-term survivors of cancer in childhood and adolescence: a Norwegian population-based cohort study

Sara Ghaderi, Anders Engeland, Maria Winther Gunnes, Dag Moster, Ellen Ruud, Astri Syse, Finn Wesenberg, Tone Bjørge

The number of young cancer survivors has increased over the past few decades due to improvement in treatment regimens, and understanding of long-term effects among the survivors has become even more important. Educational achievements and choice of educational fields were explored here. Five-year cancer survivors born in Norway during 1965-1985 (diagnosed <19 years) were included in our analysis by linking Norwegian population-based registries. Cox regression was applied to study the educational attainment among survivors of central nervous system (CNS) tumours, those assumed to have received CNS-directed therapy, and other cancer survivors relative to the cancer-free population. Logistic regression was used to compare the choice of educational fields between the cancer survivors at undergraduate and graduate level and the cancer-free population. Overall, a lower proportion of the cancer survivors completed intermediate (67 vs. 70 %), undergraduate (31 vs. 35 %) and graduate education (7 vs. 9 %) compared with the cancer-free population. Deficits in completion of an educational level were mainly observed among survivors of CNS-tumours and those assumed to have received CNS-directed therapy. Choices of educational fields among cancer survivors were in general similar with the cancer-free population at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Survivors of CNS-tumours and those assumed to have received CNS-directed therapy were at increased risk for educational impairments compared with the cancer-free population. Choices of educational fields were in general similar. Careful follow-up of the survivors of CNS-tumours and those assumed to have received CNS-directed therapy is important at each level of education.