Children, young adults treated with radioactive iodine at elevated risk of developing secondary primary cancer

ScienceDaily (Sep. 20, 2012) ? Children and young adult thyroid cancer patients who are treated with radioactive iodine have an elevated risk of developing a second primary malignancy, according to new data presented at the 82nd Annual Meeting of the American Thyroid Association in Qu?bec City, Qu?bec, Canada.

"The expected survival time for young patients with differentiated thyroid cancer is long. However, as new data elucidates, a need exists to judiciously weigh the benefits of radioactive iodine against the small, but real, increase in the risk of developing secondary primary malignancies," said Elizabeth Pearce, MD, of Boston Medical Center, and Program Co-Chair of the ATA Annual Meeting.

Though increasingly used as a treatment for differentiated thyroid cancer, long-term implication of radioactive iodine in children and young adults are not well defined. Existing data are limited to case series with limited follow-up that, in particular, may underestimate the risk of these patients developing secondary primary malignancies. To date, epidemiologic analyses of secondary primary malignancies risk have only been performed in the adult population.

A team of researchers led by Jennifer Marti, MD, of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, thus sought to characterize of secondary primary malignancies among children. They analyzed 3,850 children and young adult patients (< 25 years old) with differentiated thyroid cancer who were followed in the NCI SEER cancer registry from 1973 to 2008. Among patients who were treated with radioactive iodine, researchers observed 26 cases of secondary primary malignancies, outnumbering the 18.3 cases researchers had expected. Researchers found that patients who were treated with radioactive iodine (40%) had a significantly elevated relative risk (SIR 1.42, p = .05) of developing a secondary primary malignancy at all sites; their risk of developing a salivary malignancy was especially elevated (SIR = 34.12, p < 0.001). Researchers also estimated that over a decade, ~1 in 227 children and young adults will develop a secondary primary malignancy attributed to radioactive iodine treatment and ~1 in 588 will develop a salivary cancer attributable to radioactive iodine treatment. Patients who were not treated with radioactive iodine did not have an elevated risk of developing a secondary primary malignancy.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Thyroid Association, via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/boOTaCTp5DU/120920153117.htm

les paul fred thompson fred thompson red hook romney tax return the tree of life movie academy award nominees 2012