Raine Talley, a West Chester native, overcame leukemia as a child, but the treatment left her with several long-term effects, including new cancers, writes Nicole Leonard for the WHYY. 

At just eight years old, Talley had to have a bone marrow transplant, followed by radiation. The treatment cured her leukemia, but over a decade later, doctors discovered she had early-stage thyroid cancer, one of the secondary cancers common in people who have been exposed to radiation. 

Now, at 27, she is being treated for kidney cancer, which could also be linked to her prior cancer treatment. 

While advancements in cancer treatments have allowed more children to survive their diseases, those same treatments can later cause various health complications, including delayed hormone development, infertility, and secondary cancers. 

A new Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia research program will focus on such long-term effects of cancer treatment in children with the aim to identify interventions that can reduce some of these health complications. 

“Everyone focuses on the cure, but I think cure alone is absolutely not enough,” said Sogol Mostoufi-Moab, CHOP endocrinologist and oncologist. “You need to focus on quality of the cure.” 

Read more about Raine Talley and CHOP’s new cancer research program in the WHYY. 

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