Pediatric oncologist Margreet Veening and several colleagues published several articles on kidney damage in adult survivors and hypertension last year.
Margreet Veening, a pediatric oncologist and late effects researcher at Máxima since 2018, is working with a KWF grant on research into kidney damage in adult survivors of childhood cancer (survivors) who received potentially kidney-damaging treatment.
Margreet explains, “When it comes to side effects, at the time of treatment but also in later life, the so-called late effects, there is still a lot of work to do and great gains to be made. Margreet investigated several renal (kidney) late effects in her research and advocates preventive intervention, because it is only when the kidneys almost stop working that complaints arise. Margreet: ‘With the results of the research funded by KWF, we can better inform current survivors, but also children with cancer in the future, about the risks of late kidney damage.
At the Máxima, all children who were diagnosed with cancer five years earlier are followed up at the LATER care clinic. By knowing who has an increased risk of kidney damage, we can improve the current guidelines for follow-up and thereby contribute to our ultimate goal: to cure as many children as possible without undesirable late effects.
