An electron microscopy prototype of a breast cancer cell

A breast cancer cell Credit: London Research Establish EM Unit

Our Science Surgery series answers your cancer scientific discipline questions.

If you take a question that yous'd like us to answer, send it to us using the e-mail address at the bottom of this postal service.

Tommy asked: "Does having had 1 type of cancer (and cured) brand yous more susceptible to getting whatsoever other blazon?"

To begin answering this question, you lot accept to know the difference between second cancers, which this relates to, and secondary cancers. Second cancers are those that develop after a person has already had one cancer, and the two diseases are unrelated. Secondary cancers are where a person's cancer comes dorsum or spreads to another function of the torso.

Now that more people are surviving cancer, scientists tin can follow more patients afterward they've been treated and record their health over time. And this includes seeing if they develop second cancers.

It'due south this research that's answering Tommy'southward question. And it seems that the basic reply is 'yep', but the chance of developing a second cancer is very modest. Information technology also depends on many factors, which we'll at present explore in more detail.

Cancer drugs

One of the chief culprits behind the risk of a 2d cancer is the type of treatment a patient had for their commencement, or master cancer.

Sure chemotherapy drugs work past fatally dissentious the DNA of fast-growing cells, a characteristic of cancer cells. But these drugs can also inadvertently touch on good for you cells that are naturally dividing in the body, such equally those in the claret.

This is what causes treatment side furnishings. And if the damaged cells don't die, it'southward possible this harm could lead to these cells becoming cancerous. That's why some chemotherapy drugs have been linked with leukaemia, a blazon of blood cancer.

Radiotherapy

Radiotherapy also works past inflicting deadly damage to the DNA of cancer cells. While this has go a very precise, sophisticated treatment over the years, the radiation can still damage salubrious cells around the tumour, which could increase the likelihood they i 24-hour interval become cancerous.

The hazard from radiotherapy also depends on the corporeality of radiation given, and where in the body. For example breast cancer patients may have a higher risk of developing lung cancer, every bit the lungs are near the breast tissue.

Medical imaging

To get a good await at what's going on inside a person – whether that's to help diagnose cancer, or monitor a cancer they've already been diagnosed with – doctors can use a variety of imaging techniques. Some of these, like 10-rays and CT scans, utilise radiation to create pictures of the trunk'southward inner workings.

These types of scans carry a very small hazard of damaging salubrious cells which, similar to radiotherapy, depends on how much radiation a person has received. But they're an important function of some people's cancer diagnosis and treatment, which is why the benefits outweigh the small potential risks when these scans are necessary.

Other factors

The factors discussed then far relate to a person's get-go cancer. But at that place are besides many other factors that tin can raise the risk of a second cancer that aren't related in this way. These include:

  • Genetics: Some people inherit faults in genes that heighten their risk of developing a number of dissimilar cancers, such as the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. And then information technology'south possible that people whose cells deport these faults could develop second cancer as a result of their genes, post-obit treatment and recovery from another cancer caused by the same underlying genetics.
  • Lifestyle and environment: Certain things that fall under these categories, like smoking, tin can cause many different cancers. This means that if a person develops one blazon of cancer considering of smoking, such as float cancer, it'southward possible that the harm from smoking could lead to another later, similar lung cancer.
  • Historic period: Ageing is the biggest adventure factor for most cancers. Equally many of us are living longer, the cells in our bodies take more fourth dimension to go awry as they build up years of wear and tear. So if a person develops cancer when they're young, unfortunately they'll have a greater hazard of developing a second cancer than someone who was diagnosed belatedly in life, simply considering they'll be live for longer later treatment.

The key departure between these chance factors and others is that the risk of a 2nd cancer is tied to the person'due south already heightened risk of developing cancer throughout their life, rather than being linked to their master cancer.

And then what does all of this mean?

This question tin't be answered with a simple 'yes' or 'no'.

"We've known for decades that certain treatments carry risk of developing cancer," says Professor Anthony Moorman, a Cancer Inquiry Uk-funded scientist working to improve the outlook for blood cancer patients.

"That's why handling schedules are constantly reviewed and, wherever possible, the intensity of the drugs is reduced in club to minimise the risk of second cancer but without reducing the chance of curing the primary cancer."

"Ultimately, non taking cancer treatment is going to open up then many more problems than the minor risk of developing a second cancer"

– Professor Moorman

"We demand to keep and aggrandize research into the long-term effects of cancer therapy because, fortunately, more and more people, peculiarly children, are being cured of their primary cancer and nosotros want them to go on and relish long healthy lives."

Moorman says that while second cancers have been recognised for some time, the gamble is still very minor. A contempo report carried out in Denmark found that the risk of cancer developing in people who have had cancer earlier was only 1.i times greater than people who accept no history of cancer.

"Ultimately, not taking cancer treatment is going to open up so many more problems than the modest gamble of developing a second cancer," says Moorman. "Taking the recommended treatment is the patients' very best adventure of surviving."

Justine

We'd like to give thanks Tommy for asking us this question. If you'd like to ask us something, e-mail sciencesurgery@cancer.org.britain, leaving your first name and location (optional).

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