Loke received radiotherapy as a child

Text: Annika Lund for Medicinsk Vetenskap nr 4 2024 / Spotlight on radiation therapy

When Loke Lassen was eight years old, she was diagnosed with aplastic anaemia, an autoimmune disease that attacks the bone marrow.  

"When I was nine, I received chemotherapy and whole-body radiation to eliminate immune cells. After that, I had a bone marrow transplant. Just before I turned ten, I was declared well," she says.

The radiation was given on three occasions, and Loke Lassen had to lie in a rigid mould that had been cast to fit the body. 

"It was tricky to get into that mould, and I had to be naked. Additionally, I felt incredibly nauseous from the chemotherapy and could not eat. It was terribly tough, but the staff did their best to help me endure it," she says.

She still go for check-ups with a haematologist. 

"They have told me that I need to check certain things, like how my heart is doing, and start having mammograms already now. But when I tried to do this, neither the cardiologist nor the mammography unit wanted to see me. It has been very stressful to be  a case that seems to have fallen through the cracks of the system," she says.

A few years ago, Loke Lassen read about late effects clinics in the magazine Medicinsk Vetenskap. 

"I contacted one, but at first they did not want to see me either ‒ after all, I have not had cancer. But now they have reconsidered. Through them, I have been referred for mammography and to a cardiologist. Everything looks good, and it was a great relief to hear that," she says.

She has some problems that are probably late effects. These include joint pain, dry eyes, general fatigue and brain fatigue. 

"I realise I will probably have to live with this. I also had skin cancer when I was sixteen. But despite all these troubles, I want to highlight something very important: if I had been born ten years earlier, I would not be alive today. That is a perspective I carry with me all the time," she says.