Study Explores Risk of Cancer After Lymphoma Treatment

Risk of treatment-related cancers elevated for 30 years after diagnosis

FRIDAY, March 21 (HealthDay News) -- Among survivors of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the risk of developing subsequent treatment-related solid tumors remains elevated for up to 30 years after the initial diagnosis, according to an article first published online March 17 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Kari Hemminki, M.D., Ph.D., of the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany, and colleagues studied data from the Swedish Family-Cancer Database, which included 28,131 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, in order to investigate the risk of subsequent solid tumors after treatment for the cancer.

Among non-Hodgkin's lymphoma survivors, the standardized incidence ratio (SIR) was 1.65 for solid tumors and 5.36 for lymphohematopoietic malignancies, the investigators found. Among solid tumors, spinal meningioma had the highest incidence rate at 40.8. The SIR decreased as age of diagnosis rose, with highest rates in patients diagnosed in childhood. In addition, among the most common patient age groups, the SIR remained elevated up to 30 years after the diagnosis of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The authors conclude that "therapy-related damage persists at least 30 years and the toll of solid tumors as therapy-related cases is largest 21 to 30 years after diagnosis, which needs to be considered in the medical surveillance schemes of the patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma."

Abstract
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