Video: Special clinic serves childhood cancer survivors

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REDMOND, Wash. - More children than ever are surviving childhood cancer.

But for families, the worry doesn't end with the last treatment.

A special clinic at Seattle Children's aims to help survivors stay healthy for life. 

Cassandra Hargin and her mother shared the experience of Cassandra's cancer at age 5.

"I do remember a lot of the good things," Cassandra said. "Like my favorite nurses and doctors."

But Cassandra remembers through a child's eyes.

"For my Make a Wish trip I decided to go to Disneyland," she said. "It was like the best vacation anyone would have imagined."

It's a world apart from the memories that haunt her mother, Jessica Hargin.

"It was told to us at the beginning that she had a 30 percent chance of survival," Jessica said.

And the end of treatment was not only joyous but frightening.

"At least when you're getting treatment the doctors are watching, the cancer's dying," Jessica said. "But the minute you walk out that door and treatment's over, it's all unknown."

The unknowns are the late health effects from not just cancer but chemotherapy and radiation. They range from learning problems to slowed growth, heart problems, infertility, even recurrence and risk of other cancers.

To help families deal with what follows cancer, Seattle Children's created the ACCESS Clinic.

"It stands for after cancer care ends, survivorship starts," said Dr. Eric Chow, pediatric oncologist.

Chow directs the clinic, now in its eighth year. He says the goal is to educate parents, keep families up to date on the latest medical information and offer a summary of a child's treatment that will customize care.

"We can then say, well because of this type of treatment that you got, you're more likely to have these kinds of problems," Chow said. "And therefore we're going to screen you more closely."

Clinic staff also helps teens tackle the transition to becoming adult survivors.

"It's helping parents let go, and it's also helping those older children take on their health care," said Karen Wilkinson NP, ACCESS clinic coordinator.

It's something Cassandra is thinking about more and more.

"Pretty soon I'm going to have to do it all myself," she said. "And that's scary, but, you know, I'm growing up."

The most effective cancer treatments and cures have all been found through research.

So doctors at the Children's clinic encourage young patients to get involved in appropriate studies. 

The Children's cancer follow-up clinic also puts families in touch with others who have gone through the experience.