A study observed that women who suffered from breast cancer, particularly before the age of 50, are more likely to be affected by a second cancer.
- Breast cancer is the most common female cancer.
- According to a British study, survivors of a first breast cancer have a double risk of having contralateral breast cancer.
- Age would also be important in the appearance of a second cancer, the researchers indicated.
Are women who have survived breast cancer at greater risk of developing a second malignancy? In any case, this is what new research from the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom) suggests, which was based on medical data from more than 600,000 patients.
Higher risk of endometrial cancer after breast cancer
The most common female cancer, breast cancer mainly occurs after the age of 50 in patients. In order to better understand the mechanisms that expose one to a second risk of cancer, the British team analyzed data, from the National Cancer Registration Dataset, of 580,000 women and 3,500 men who had a malignant breast tumor diagnosed between 1995 and 2019. This work was published in the journal Lancet Regional Health.
According to the results, female survivors of a first breast cancer have a double risk of suffering from contralateral breast cancer. That is to say a second cancer developing in the healthy breast organ, compared to the general population. These patients were also exposed to an 87% increased risk of endometrial cancer, 58% of myeloid leukemia and 25% of ovarian cancer.
Second cancer: a link between the age of patients at the time of diagnosis and increased risk
During this research, scientists also observed that the age of the participants plays an important role in the risk of developing a second cancer. Women diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 50 were 86% more likely to have a second primary cancer compared to the general population of the same age. As for women who were diagnosed after age 50, this risk was estimated at 17%.
This difference could be explained by the fact that a greater number of young breast cancer survivors may have inherited genetic alterations, which increase the risk of multiple cancers, according to the study leaders’ initial hypotheses. In particular, they indicated that patients who inherited changes in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes had an increased risk of contralateral breast cancer, ovarian cancer and pancreatic cancer.
Another observation from the study: women from disadvantaged backgrounds have a 35% increased risk of developing a second primary cancer compared to those from advantaged environments. “This is further evidence of the health inequalities experienced by people from more disadvantaged backgrounds. We need to understand why they are at greater risk of second cancers, so we can intervene and reduce this risk,” underlined Isaac Allen, first author of the work and doctoral student in genetic epidemiology of cancer at the University of Cambridge.