Abstract
Radiation has an established place in the diagnosis and therapy of cancer. About 10% of patients presenting with cancer at major centers have a second malignancy. Most are a result of genetic predisposition or continued lifestyle, but some are treatment-related. For example, in patients treated for prostate cancer, about 1 in 70 develop a radiation-induced cancer by 10 years post therapy. Most second cancers are carcinomas arising in organs close to or remote from the treatment site. There is also an incidence of sarcomas within or close to the treatment volume, in the high dose region. The absolute risk is small, but the relative risk is high for these tumors. Animal studies show that the risk of a radiation-induced sarcoma approaches 100% following high doses in animals followed for a lifetime. This suggests that the reason for the low sarcoma risk in patients receiving radiotherapy for prostate cancer is their short life expectancy.
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© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Hall, E.J., Brenner, D.J. (2008). Second Malignancies as a Consequence of Radiation Therapy. In: Rubin, P., Constine, L.S., Marks, L.B., Okunieff, P. (eds) Late Effects of Cancer Treatment on Normal Tissues. Medical Radiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-49070-8_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-49070-8_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-49069-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-49070-8
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