According to the results of latest study, girls who undergo radiation therapy for cancer in childhood are at increased risk of developing breast cancer in long term.
However, if the treatment includes higher doses to the ovaries, it seems to protect them from breast cancer in their later life.
As we all know, radiation therapy is very common and also effective treatment for cancers like Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
But, according to Dr. Peter D. Inskip of the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues, regardless of age, both adolescents and adults who receive radiation therapy are at increased risk of developing breast caner in their later stages of life.
The team studied 120 women younger than 21 years and with cancer, were treated between 1970 and 1986, and survived for at least 5 years. Chemotherapy for the initial cancer did not increase the risk of a second cancer.
However, the more radiation a woman received as a child, the higher her risk of a later tumor, Inskip and colleagues report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Source: Reuters
