Study Flags Rising Cancer Risk After Breast Cancer Treatment

A population-based study conducted in Japan has indicated a steady rise in cases of therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia (tAML) in recent years, particularly among patients treated for breast cancer, according to a study released on Monday.

The findings, published by Wiley online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, revealed that certain cancer treatments may increase the risk of developing secondary blood-related cancers later in life.

tAML is a highly aggressive cancer affecting the blood and bone marrow that develops after patients undergo chemotherapy or radiation therapy for a prior primary cancer. It is believed to occur partly due to DNA damage caused by these treatments.

“The study provides an important step towards better understanding how the nature of tAML is changing with the increasing number of cancer survivors,” said lead author Kenji Kishimoto of the Osaka International Cancer Institute.

To examine whether tAML is becoming more common as a complication of cancer therapy, researchers analysed data from the Osaka Cancer Registry, focusing on patients diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) between 1990 and 2020.

Out of 9,841 AML patients, 636 (6.5 per cent) were identified as having tAML. The annual incidence of tAML rose from 0.13 per 100,000 population in 1990 to 0.36 per 100,000 population in 2020. Additionally, the proportion of tAML cases among all AML diagnoses nearly doubled over the study period.

The most common primary cancer preceding tAML was another type of blood cancer (23.1 per cent), followed by breast cancer (14.6 per cent), colorectal cancer (11.5 per cent), and gastric cancer (8.7 per cent).

Researchers also noted a shift in the types of primary cancers linked to tAML over time, with a significant increase in cases following breast cancer treatment and a decline in those associated with gastric cancer.

With Inputs From IANS