Girls who survive childhood cancer face breast cancer risk as adults from radiation

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(CBS News) Childhood cancer survivors often face a tough battle against a disease that zaps their strength and treatments that cause nasty side effects. Now a new study shows girls who were treated with chest radiation during a bout of childhood cancer and survived are at risk for developing breast cancer as adults.

An increased risk of breast cancer is already a known, long-term side effect of moderate to high-dose radiation therapy to the chest, and current screening guidelines for childhood cancer survivors recommend annual screening with a mammogram or MRI for women who received 20 or more Gray or Gy - a measure of the radiation dose - of therapy to the chest. But this new study found that survivors who received lower radiation doses have a higher risk of breast cancer, and may need to follow similar recommendations.

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The study, presented June 4 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago, looked at more than 1,200 women who survived childhood cancer, and compared them with data on 4,570 women who were relatives of someone with breast cancer. They found that by age 50, almost a quarter of women who survived childhood cancer developed breast cancer.

Thirty percent of women treated for Hodgkin lymphoma as children - a cancer of the lymph system that our bodies use to fight infection and disease - developed breast cancer before 50. The researchers say this added risk is similar to that of women who possess the so-called "breast cancer genes" BRCA1 and BRCA2. Reviewing data on relatives of someone with breast cancer tied having the  BRCA1 gene to a 30 percent risk of getting the disease and BRCA2 to a 10 percent added risk.  An average woman's risk of breast cancer by age 50 is 4 percent.

Risk was evident from moderate doses of radiation in the 10 to 19 Gy range, about 7 percent developed breast cancer, compared with 12 percent who received radiation doses of 20 Gy or higher.

"While radiation doses have decreased and techniques have improved, radiation therapy is still an essential part of treatment for many childhood cancers," said study author Dr. Chaya S. Moskowitz, associate attending biostatistician at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, said in a news release. "The goal is to cure the cancer for more children while lessening future health problems. Our results suggest that young women treated with lower doses of radiation who are not currently being screened also have a higher risk of breast cancer and might benefit from a similar screening schedule."

Dr. Paula Ryan, a breast cancer specialist at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia who was not involved with the study, told the Associated Press that up to 9,000 more women who were given moderate radiation may need to get screened for breast cancer from the new findings.

"They're a group that may be vulnerable," she said.

Childhood cancer treatments today typically provide lower doses of radiation to smaller regions of the body. More than 10,000 children are diagnosed with a childhood cancer each year, according to the National Cancer Institute, and more than 1,500 kids will die. Among the 12 major types of childhood cancers, leukemias (blood cell cancers) and cancers of the brain and central nervous system account for more than half of the new cases.

[rainbowbrew]

Cancer is caused many times from pollutants, chemicals foreign to our bodies. It stands to reason that if you get this life saving treatment you would be suseptible to more cancer. It is probably known and there is probably a mortality associated with it.

But if the government would do research on cannabis or listen to those who have they would find that cannabis (a natural product that are bodies are wired for) kills breeaat cancer as well as other cancers.

[manz7]

RE: CANCER
Drop the milk and all DAIRY PRODUCTS. Read up on it in:
YOUR LIFE IN YOUR HANDS UNDERSTANDING, PREVENTING, AND OVERCOMING BREAST CANCER Jane A Plant, Ph.D. 2000/2001
Also by Jane A Plant: PROSTATE CANCER UNDERSTAND, PREVENT AND OVERCOME 2004
If you or somebody you know is cancer prone or have diseases as described below, I strongly suggest you read one or both of these books !

Milk contains chemicals intended for calves to grow at a faster rate as compared to humans. Calves need lots of insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I) to grow fast. IGF-I is not destroyed during pasteurization even after being treated at 347 degrees farenheight for 45 seconds (which is longer than the USDA Pasteurization Protocal), the concentration of IGF-I was not reduced.

Hey, just try it - it may save your life !

[gabrielle05]

I had childhood leukemia. I received chemotherapy, but no radiation at age 2. I believe the chemotherapy saved my life. However, at age 25, I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. I've seen research on the links between childhood radiation and adult cancer, but I am wondering if there is any research on individuals who had just chemotherapy as a child (no radiation) and ended up with cancer as an adult?

[erasmus111]

Radiation and chemo may get rid of one cancer, but down the road, you will end up with another cancer. IT will cause another cancer. How could you expect it to do otherwise, when it's destroying everything in your body?? If you are older when you have it, well, I guess you could die from something else before it happens again, but if you are a child, you are going to see it again.

And even if "cancer" should not return, there are plenty of other things you will probably have to deal with. It damages the organs. And I know someone that was left with no saliva, and now has SEVERE allergies. Now that might sound like a minor thing compared to cancer, BUT IT ISN'T.

I would be taking an alternative route, myself. Suzanne Somers did it and has survived just fine.

[Lula101]

I beg to differ with your closemindedness and negativity. I am one of those children who had advanced stage Hodgkin's disease and now I am all grown up with a family of my own. I am so thankful for that radiation and chemo that helped save my life. Life is good after the radiation. It is a necessary part of treatment. Don't scare people from lifesaving treatment!I have been cured for 30 years.

[erasmus111]

Lula

I'm not trying to scare anyone. I just think people need to live in REALITY. The scary part is living in DENIAL.

Did you read the article? It says that you can develop cancer by the age of 50. Are you over 50?