In children who have survived Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the risk of developing a new cancer afterwards is 14 times higher than in the general population.
Children who survive Hodgkin’s lymphoma are at high risk of developing cancer many years later, according to new research refining existing evidence. In addition, certain subgroups of patients are at particularly high risk. What to support the current screenings.
All kinds of cancer
Until now, the extent of the cancer risk of children with Hodgkin’s lymphoma was not known in the long term. To supplement the current data, Smita Bhatia (University of Alabama at Birmingham) and her colleagues analyzed the medical course of 1136 patients who were diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma before the age of 17, between 1955 and 1986.
During more than 26 years of follow-up, 162 of these people developed cancers. Their risk of developing cancer was therefore 14 times higher than for the general population. The researchers also calculated that the cumulative incidence of all types of cancer was 26.4% 40 years after the diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Radiation
In detail, Hodgkin’s lymphoma survivors treated with abdominal or pelvic radiation and high-dose alkylating agents (1) had the highest risk of colorectal cancer, and women exposed to neck radiation before the age of 10 years had the highest risk of thyroid cancer.
“This large international cohort allowed us to determine the risk of new cancers like breast cancer, colorectal cancer and thyroid cancer,” Dr Bhatia said. “Most importantly, we identified subgroups of Hodgkin’s lymphoma survivors who were particularly vulnerable to the onset of these new cancers,” she adds.
Need for ongoing and more targeted screening
Concretely, these new data underline the need for continuous and more targeted screening of this population of former patients. A lymphoma is a cancer of the lymphatic system, the main component of the body’s immune system. It is a disease that involves cells of the white blood cell family, called lymphocytes. Hodgkin’s lymphoma occurs when an initially normal lymphocyte changes and then multiplies out of control, forming a cluster of abnormal cells called a cancerous tumour.
Hodgkin lymphoma is a relatively uncommon cancer. The number of new cases diagnosed in France is estimated at 1,880, which represents approximately 0.5% of all cancers and 10% of all lymphomas. Hodgkin’s lymphoma occurs mainly in young adults, in the majority of cases between 20 and 30 years old, and in people over the age of 60. It can also affect children and adolescents, although it is exceptional before the age of 5 (2).
1) Drugs used in cancer chemotherapy.
2) Source: National Cancer Institute.
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