Radiation
Treatment for Cancer
Causes
Diabetes in Children
January 27, 2010 by: David Gutierrez
People who are undergo radiation therapy for childhood cancers are
significantly more likely to develop diabetes as adults, according to a new
study conducted by researchers from Emory University and published in the Archives
of Internal Medicine.
A number of studies have found that radiation, chemotherapy, and other such
treatments significantly shorten the lives of childhood cancer survivors.
"As a result of their curative therapies, childhood cancer survivors face
an increased risk of
morbidity and mortality," the researchers wrote. Nearly 75 percent of such
children develop a chronic health
condition within 30 years of diagnosis,
while 42.4 percent develop severe, disabling or life-threatening health
conditions. Because cardiovascular disease
is a major killer of childhood
cancer survivors, the researchers examined the effect of radiation
treatment on the risk of diabetes, a major correlate of cardiovascular
mortality.
The researchers examined diabetes
rates in 8,599 people who had been diagnosed with cancer
before the age of 21, between 1970 and 1986. These rates were compared with
2,936 of their cancer-free siblings, who were randomly selected. All
participants were screened for diabetes in 2003.
After adjusting for other diabetes
risk factors including age, body mass index, ethnicity, exercise, income,
insurance and race, the researchers found that those who had undergone cancer
treatment as children were 1.8 times more likely to have diabetes as adults than
their siblings were. Those who had been treated with abdominal radiation were
2.7 times more likely to have diabetes, while those who had been treated with
whole-body radiation were a shocking 7.2 times more likely to be diabetic.
Risk increased with radiation dose used, and decreased with age at diagnosis.
People diagnosed with cancer before the age of five had 2.4 times the diabetes
risk as those diagnosed between the ages of 15 and 20.
A previous study found that childhood cancer survivors were five to 10 times
more likely to suffer from heart disease than their cancer-free siblings, and
significantly more likely to suffer from kidney disease.
