Childhood Radiation Therapy Increases Future Breast Cancer Risk, Study Finds

Main Category: Breast Cancer
Also Included In: Radiology / Nuclear Medicine;  Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 23 Jul 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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Women who underwent radiation therapy for cancer as children have an increased long-term risk for developing breast cancer, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Reuters reports. However, when the childhood treatments included a high dose of radiation to the ovaries, women's risk of developing future breast tumors was "sharply reduced," according to the study.

For the study, Peter Inskip of the National Cancer Institute and colleagues examined 120 women diagnosed with cancer before age 21. All women in the study were treated with radiation between 1970 and 1986 and survived at least five years. The women were compared with four women who also were diagnosed at a young age but did not receive radiation.

The study found that the more radiation a woman received as a child, the more likely it was that a tumor would eventually develop. The study did not find that chemotherapy for the first cancer increased the risk for a second cancer (Reuters, 7/20).

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