Women who have their breast cancer treated with radiation therapy are significantly more likely to develop skin cancer in the future, a recent study shows. The findings are published in JAMA Network Open. [1]
Researchers from the Stanford School of Medicine tested the hypothesis that radiation treatment for breast cancer would increase the likelihood of a patient developing nonkeratinocyte skin cancer, especially on or around the breast. To conduct their retrospective study, the team looked at 875,880 patient records collected between 2000 and 2019, all of whom were diagnosed with breast cancer. Half of the patients (50.3%) were treated with radiation.
“The main treatment modality examined was radiation therapy for breast cancer, and chemotherapy and surgical intervention for breast cancer were evaluated in combination with radiation therapy,” study lead author Shawheen Rezaei, an MD student at Stanford School of Medicine, and his colleagues wrote.
Nearly all (99.3%) of the patient records examined for the study were those of women 51.6% of whom were 60 years or older. The majority of patients (69.5%) were white, with 11.2% being Hispanic and 10.1% Black.
In their analysis, Rezaei and colleagues found 3,839 patients from the cohort developed subsequent skin nonkeratinocyte cancer after being treated for breast cancer, specifically melanoma, Merkel cell carcinoma, hemangiosarcoma, or another form. Radiation therapy was tied to the highest rate of skin cancer, with those treated being 57% more likely than the general population to develop cancer in or around the skin of the breast.
The authors noted that this alarmingly high rate is important for physicians to be aware of, as some forms of skin cancer can spread throughout the body and may be more deadly than breast cancer. They added that physicians should be aware of the elevated but small risk of subsequent skin cancers in breast cancer patients who undergo radiation therapy, and develop follow-up care plans.
Further research is necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of mitigations, such as regular self-assessment skin checks, to improve outcomes for women who received radiation treatment for breast cancer. The authors also recommend further studies to investigate the impact of radiation dosage and genetics on the risk of subsequent skin cancers.
The full study can be read by clicking here.
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