Chest Radiation Of Rare Childhood Cancer Increases Risk Of Breast Cancer Later In Life

Recent findings published in the journal CANCER reveal that chest radiation for Wilms tumor, otherwise known as a rare form of childhood cancer, could pose an increased risk of breast cancer later in life due to radiation exposure.

Researchers note that the findings suggest that the cancer screening guidelines might be re-evaluated to facilitate early diagnosis and prompt treatment of breast cancer among patients of Wilms tumor survivors.

This rare type of childhood kidney cancer spreads to the lungs and usually requires a low dose of 12-14 Gray radiation therapy to the chest to cure it, with radiation exposure that affects patients' risk of developing breast cancer, according to study author Norman Breslow, of the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

For the study, researchers examined 2,500 young women who had been treated for the health issue and who survived until at least 15 years of age.

Over 20 percent of survivors in the study who received radiation developed breast cancer by age 40. In contrast, only about 0.3 percent of the female Wilms tumor survivors received radiation. The researchers also found an intermediate risk (4 percent) of breast cancer among female Wilms tumor patients who had received abdominal but no chest radiation as part of their treatment for Wilms tumor.

These rates for females receiving chest irradiation, abdominal radiation and no radiation were nearly 30, 6 and 2 times that expected among women of comparable age to the general population, according to researchers.

"Current guidelines call for early screening for breast cancer among survivors of childhood cancer if they have received 20 or more Gray of radiation therapy to breast tissue. This would exclude a large majority of patients who had received whole chest radiation for Wilms tumor," concluded Dr. Breslow, in a news release. "Our results suggest that the risk of early breast cancer among Wilms tumor survivors is sufficiently high that early screening might be considered an option for them also."