Childhood leukemia and lymphoma survivors have elevated risk of second cancers

Leukemia :: Childhood leukemia and lymphoma survivors have elevated risk of second cancers

Survivors of childhood leukemia and lymphoma, particularly Hodgkin lymphoma, are at a high risk for secondary cancers.

To quantify this risk, Milena Maule, Ph.D., of the University of Turin in Italy, and colleagues compared the rates of second cancers in survivors of childhood leukemia and lymphoma with the cancer rate in the general population.

They used a very large dataset that included more than 16,500 survivors from 13 registries around the world.

Survivors of childhood leukemia and lymphoma were almost seven times more likely to have a second cancer than the general population. Hodgkin lymphoma survivors were most likely to get a second cancer with a cumulative incidence of 12.7 percent within 30 years of diagnosis. Among leukemia survivors, the most frequent secondary cancers were brain cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and thyroid cancer. For Hodgkin lymphoma survivors, the most common were thyroid cancer, breast cancer, and nonmelanoma skin cancer. For non-Hodgkin lymphoma survivors, the most common were thyroid cancer and brain cancer.

"The geographical heterogeneity of the registries contributing to this study and the high quality of their data make the described pattern of second [cancer] risk for childhood leukemia and lymphoma survivors valid for many areas of the world," the authors write.