Early post-therapy prescription drug usage among survivors of childhood cancers.

147Background: Childhood cancer survivors often develop treatment-associated morbidities. We hypothesized that emerging treatment-related medical morbidities would be reflected in patterns of prescription drug usage among survivors in the first three years after therapy completion. Methods: Using the Truven Health MarketScan Commercial Claims database, we identified survivors of childhood (0-21 years-old at diagnosis) leukemia, lymphoma, central nervous system (CNS), bone, or gonadal tumors who completed therapy during 2000 - 2011. Patients were identified using diagnosis codes and cancer-specific procedure codes for chemotherapy, surgery, or radiation therapy. Prescription fills during the first three years following therapy completion were examined and categorized by drug class. Median numbers of prescriptions per survivor were compared to age- and sex-matched children without cancer. Relative risks (RR) for any prescription and for prescriptions by drug class were calculated comparing survivors to chil...