The Health, Education, Research and Outcomes for Survivors (HEROS) Clinic offers children, adolescents and adults a survivor clinic focused on wellness issues after treatment for childhood cancer. This unique clinic empowers patients to live their best life after cancer.
The clinic is available to individuals who have finished treatment for childhood cancer at any time in the recent or distant past. The HEROS Clinic provides preventative screening, guidance and education to empower survivors to take steps to maximize their health, quality of life and longevity. The HEROS Clinic is a specialty clinic that is for patients to attend in addition to their oncology follow-up and primary care.
The HEROS Clinic consists of a multidisciplinary team staffed by a pediatric oncologist, pediatric endocrinologist, neuropsychologist, pediatric social worker and specially trained nurses. The clinic provides patients with a review of treatments received, counseling regarding potential health risks, case-specific diagnostic tests, hormonal studies, heart evaluations and testing for learning disabilities. In addition, patients are offered an opportunity to participate in research projects that study how to improve quality of life in survivors and that track side effects from various clinical trials.
The HEROS Clinic is at the forefront of national research investigating some of the metabolic markers responsible for the medical and psychological problems in childhood cancer survivors. The clinic is currently conducting federally-funded studies related to late effects in childhood cancer survivors such as stroke, cardiac events, subsequent cancers and neuropsychological outcomes.
Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven offers cancer support groups.
