Pediatric Hodgkin's survivors need to be vigilant

Findings by researchers from Stanford University Medical Center and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology suggest that survivors of pediatric Hodgkin's lymphoma need to remain vigilant about their health even thirty years after their initial diagnosis.

Researchers examined 110 pediatric Hodgkin's lymphoma survivors between 1970 and 1990 who were treated with low-dose radiation and chemotherapy. During a median follow-up of 20.6 years, they found that 18 of those patients had developed at least one secondary cancer, ranging from leukemia to carcinomas of the breast or thyroid.

In sum, they found that the risk of secondary cancers for these patients at 20 years was 17 percent and at 30 years, nearly 30 percent.

Source: Leukemia & Lymphoma Society