"Late Effects"

From a recent article in Newsweek:

Childhood cancer is not the killer it once was. Seventy-five percent of kids diagnosed with it go on to have long lives. But survival comes at a cost: two thirds of patients suffer from lingering effects, sometimes from the disease but more often from the medicines that cured it. "Childhood therapy is often stronger than adult therapy," says Dr. Robert Hayashi, a pediatrician at St. Louis Children's Hospital. "That can wreak damage on a growing body." Radiation and chemotherapy may stunt physical and mental development. Survivors may find themselves unable to concentrate for more than a few minutes, or exhausted by the smallest tasks. Time is also known to work against them. "As these patients get older," says Hayashi, "they start to show symptoms that may have been silent for years."

First you spend three years keeping your kid alive; then you spend the rest of your life worrying about him. Full article here.