Childhood Cancer Survivors Face Increased Sarcoma Risk

They were nine times more likely to develop secondary malignancy, study finds

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter
Wednesday, February 21, 2007; 12:00 AM

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 21 (HealthDay News) -- Survivors of pediatric cancer face nine times the normal risk for developing a sarcoma at least five years after treatment for the initial cancer, a new study reveals.

The risk for developing sarcoma -- a cancer of the connective or supportive tissue -- is particularly elevated among patients with a family history of cancer or whose primary childhood bout was a form of sarcoma, a bone tumor or Hodgkin lymphoma, the researchers found.

The use of radiation and certain kinds of chemotherapy drugs was also associated with higher sarcoma risk.

The observations are reported in the Feb. 21 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

"This study is a red flag," said lead author Dr. Tara O. Henderson, of the department of pediatrics within the hematology-oncology section at the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine. "And it shows that, if a patient with a history of childhood cancer later presents with a lump and a bump anywhere on their body, you need to be more suspicious of sarcoma than you would be for someone in the general population."

According to the American Cancer Society, more than three-quarters of all pediatric cancer patients now survive five years or more.

The authors note that previous research has shown that among such survivors, a secondary cancer of some kind is the leading cause of death. Sarcoma is known as a particularly stealthy though rare threat, whose nonspecific symptoms make it difficult to diagnose.

Henderson and her team analyzed data on more than 14,000 American and Canadian patients participating in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study -- the largest ongoing analysis of pediatric cancer patients conducted to date.

All the patients in the study were under the age of 21 when they were diagnosed with cancer between 1970 and 1986. All lived at least five years past their initial diagnosis of leukemia, Hodgkin lymphoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, neuroblastoma, sarcoma, kidney or bone cancer, or cancer of the central nervous system.