A multi-institutional study led by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center suggests a link between childhood chemotherapy and development of a type of kidney cancer. Although this particular cancer is very rare, the research helps illustrate the importance of studying the long-term side effects of cancer treatment, particularly as more people survive the disease.
The study, published in the April 1 issue of Journal of Clinical Oncology, looked at 39 cases of translocation kidney carcinomas, which are characterized by the fusion of specific genes due to exchanges of genetic material between chromosomes. It found that about 15 percent occurred in patients who had undergone earlier chemotherapeutic treatment. "In the overall spectrum, these tumors are a small player," said Memorial Sloan-Kettering molecular pathologist Marc Ladanyi, the study's senior author. "But our work helped to define this rare class of tumors and for the first time identified them as a type of secondary cancer in children." [PubMed Abstract]
Children who undergo chemotherapy are known to be at risk of developing a second cancer later in life, but kidney tumors as a secondary cancer are uncommon. Investigators decided to study the disease after uncovering several cases in patients who had previously undergone chemotherapy. However, how chemotherapeutic treatment may have predisposed them to translocation carcinomas remains unclear, and more research is needed.
