Survivors of childhood Hodgkin lymphoma may face the same cardiovascular risks at the age of 30 as others face at the age of 50, according to a study published today.
The findings come from the monitoring of former patients undertaken at the St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee, USA.
The researchers said that by the age of 50 survivors would have twice as many cardiovascular problems as other adults of the same age.
And they were five times as likely to face fatal or life-threatening heart conditions.
The findings, reported in The Lancet Oncology, come from a study of 348 people involved in a lifetime study at the hospital. The patients undergo a range of tests including assessment for 22 chronic cardiovascular conditions, including hypertension, heart attacks, arrhythmias and structural heart defects.
They were compared with another 272 volunteers who have not been treated for lymphoma.
The increased risk is linked to the chest radiation and chemotherapy that is used to achieve a cure rate of more than 80% for Hodgkin lymphoma.
The study has suggested the long-term impact of varying doses of radiotherapy and of anthracycline chemotherapy. Reduced radiotherapy was linked to a reduction of severity of disease – but not of the rate of disease. Reduced chemotherapy had the opposite effect.
Researcher Dr Nickhill Bhakta said: "We are doing a better job of keeping patients alive, but are we doing a better job at addressing the chronic diseases that are sometimes the price of that cure.
"Survivors tended to have more severe disease across the lifespan and likely need an individualised screening and treatment plan."
Cumulative burden of cardiovascular morbidity in paediatric, adolescent, and young adult survivors of Hodgkin’s lymphoma: an analysis from the St Jude Lifetime Cohort Study. Lancet Oncology 26 July 2016 [abstract]
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