United States: Those women suffering from breast cancer who have received chemotherapy are in increasing danger of developing lung cancer.
Know more about the latest study
An organization called Epic Research, which dealt with health data, found that in this type of group of women, the risk of lung cancer is around 57 percent higher compared to those women who only went through radiation.
As for those patients who were subjected to endocrine therapy, lung cancer risk after chemo increased by 171 percent, ending up as the bottom line, as per the research.
The team of The Epic Research said the main thing to note is that primary lung cancer is more than twice as common in women who were previously cancer breast compared to those who don’t have it, as Fox News reported.
The researchers further noted, “Furthermore, women who had breast cancer and received chemotherapy have the greatest risk of subsequent primary lung cancer.”
Added further, “This suggests that patients diagnosed with breast cancer are at an increased risk of developing second primary lung cancer, especially if their treatment included chemotherapy.”
How was the study conducted?
The research team examined more than two million women between 50 and 84 who had been screened for we by mammogram between 2010 and 2023.
Subjects with an elevated breast cancer risk of having a treatment for breast or lung cancer, patients who were screened in the previous three months, and those who did not start mammography screenings before age 50 were excluded from the study.
The researchers stated, “This could potentially limit the generalizability of our findings,” a Fox News report.
Moreover, the team urged patients who had breast cancer earlier, and especially had gone through chemotherapy, to stay alerted about the development of primary lung cancer.
The researcher added, “It is important to remember that while our study found a correlation between breast cancer, its treatments, and subsequent primary lung cancer, this does not mean that every woman who has had breast cancer will develop lung cancer.”
Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, said that one type of cancer can cause a “higher genetic risk” for others.
He added, “We don’t know the exact etiology, but one cancer puts you in a higher genetic risk pool for other cancers, either because of cancer genes that increase the risk of both or because of a tendency for mutations that is increased in this pool.”
“It could also be because of environmental factors or carcinogens, including diet, or the result of toxicities from the treatment for breast cancer,” said Siegel.