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| |  ASTRO: Radiation and Anthracycline in Children Associated With Increased Risk for Early Onset Heart Disease By Peggy Peck SALT LAKE CITY, UT -- October 27, 2003 -- Childhood cancer treatment is associated with early onset of cardiovascular disease, but results of a new study suggest that the association is not confined to patients treated with radiation therapy. Louis Constine, MD, department of radiation oncology, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, said that increased cardiovascular risk factors are present in survivors of childhood cancer who were treated with radiation or with anthracyclines. He presented the results October 21st at the 45th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiation and Oncology. The National Cancer Institute-supported study prospectively recruited 188 childhood cancer survivors who were 5 years or more post treatment and 67 sibling controls. The mean age of survivors at diagnosis was 7.4 years and at testing it was 20.8 years. Survivors and controls were assessed for cardiovascular risk factors: increased body fat, hypertension, abnormal cholesterol levels, left ventricular (LV) systolic performance, LV wall thickness, and LV afterload. In each case an abnormal finding was defined as more than 2 standard deviations from normal. Survivors were divided into groups based on treatment given: anthracycline, radiation therapy that included the heart, combined treatments, or other therapy. Tumour types included Hodgkin's, Wilms, neuroblastoma, brain tumours, sarcomas and other. Radiation-treated and anthracycline treated patients were significantly more likely to have abnormal cholesterol levels or LV parameters than patients who received other therapies or than the sibling controls. Likewise, patients who received either radiotherapy or anthracyline treatments also had increased body fat compared with sibling controls. Thirteen percent of the anthracycline treated patients, 26% of radiotherapy patients and 14% of patients who received combination therapy had three or more abnormal risk factors, which define these subjects as being at high risk, Dr. Constine said. Additional studies are needed to determine if other factors, such as biochemical markers of cardiovascular disease, are also affected by childhood cancer treatment, he added.
[Study title: Radiation-Associated Risk Factors for Premature Cardiovascular Disease in Childhood Cancer Survivors Include Accelerated Atherosclerosis. Abstract 125]
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