Increased Risk Of Leukemia After Breast Cancer Treatment

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Judy Karp, Dr. Antonio Wolff and  Dr. Kala Visvanathan
Breast Cancer Program
Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
Baltimore, MD 21287

Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: The background for this study was the clinical observation from the Johns Hopkins Leukemia Program that a significant number of women with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia had a personal history for breast and/or ovarian cancers.  This observation led to our examination of the large NCCN breast cancer database in a multidisciplinary and multi-institutional study.  The overarching finding in our study is that the risk of developing some form of leukemia following chemotherapy with or without radiation therapy, while small, continues to increase over at least 10 years without a plateau and is roughly twice what we thought it to be from previous breast cancer studies.

Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?

Response: The take-away message is that we need to consider multiple factors when determining whether or not to give adjuvant chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy for stage I breast cancer.

Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Response: Our recommendations for future research include the need for large, prospective, and comprehensively annotated databases for all cancers, including familial cancer registries, (in this instance, breast and hematologic malignancies) in order to conduct accurate and informative studies assessing cancer risk.  In addition, we need continuing studies to refine our ability to determine the risk-benefit ratio for breast cancer-related interventions for women with early stage breast cancers.

Citation:

Risk of Marrow Neoplasms After Adjuvant Breast Cancer Therapy: The National Comprehensive Cancer Network Experience

Antonio C. Wolff, Amanda L. Blackford, Kala Visvanathan, Hope S. Rugo, Beverly Moy, Lori J. Goldstein, Keith Stockerl-Goldstein, Leigh Neumayer, Terry S. Langbaum, Richard L. Theriault, Melissa E. Hughes, Jane C. Weeks, and Judith E. Karp

JCO JCO.2013.54.6119; published online on December 22, 2014;

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Last Updated on December 28, 2014 by Marie Benz MD FAAD