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This page provides an overview of the main side effects of chemotherapy.

Nausea and vomiting (emesis) can be two of the most debilitating side-effects of chemotherapy and they can cause considerable distress to the child or adolescent and their family.

Constipation may be caused by a number of factors including poor dietary/fluid intake, infection, perianal pain and drugs or combinations of drugs.

Children and young people who are febrile have direct access back to their respective cancer centre.

Children and adolescents with cancer are more at risk of infections because of the disease itself and also because of the treatment, both of which can affect the immune system.

Approximately 60% of survivors will have a problem or late effect related to their treatment. For some, these can require minimum interventions, but for others it may be far greater.

Oral complications are a common side effect of cytotoxic anti-cancer treatment (including chemotherapy, radiotherapy and some immunotherapies). It is well recognised as negatively impacting the quality of life of children and young people with cancer

The aim of this section is to give you an overview of nutrition specifically for children and adolescents with cancer and direct you to further information and resources.

The page provides list of risk factors associated with steroid induced myopathy and describes the pathophysiology. It will discuss the clinical presentation of patients suffering from steroid-induced myopathy and includes a list of common signs and symptoms.

Children and adolescents receive doses of up to 10mg/m² of steroids for 14 days on certain leukaemia and lymphoma protocols and patients with brain tumours also may have a lot of steroids.