A new study finds that survivors of childhood leukemia and lymphoma are at a greater risk of chronic fatigue, a persistent lack of energy that doesn’t improve with rest, as adults.

The study, published in the March issue of the Journal of Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology, included a total of 143 male and 147 female childhood leukemia/lymphoma survivors and was comprised of a questionnaire, clinical examination and blood samples.

Chronic fatigue was three times more prevalent among the childhood leukemia/lymphoma survivors.

“Chronic fatigue in cancer survivors is often an under-appreciated complication of treatment,” says Editor-in-Chief Leonard S. Sender, MD, of the University of California, Irvine and CHOC Children’s Hospital. “There is a general belief that after successful treatment a survivor should be able to bounce back without lasting effects. Hamre and colleagues demonstrate that fatigue is a larger problem than generally appreciated.

Their findings put a spotlight on this key aspect of cancer survivorship and serve to encourage the medical community to communicate with cancer survivor patients about possible chronic fatigue.”

If you deal with chronic fatigue, you could have a more serious sleep problem and the AASM encourages you to talk to your doctors about sleep problems or visit www.sleepeducation.com for a searchable directory of sleep centers.