Experience I'm a Doctor of Medicine. Licensed/certified physician and surgeon and specialist in Medical
Oncology and Radiation therapy in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and the European Union. Background in Radiation Therapy, Medical Oncology, Radiation Protection, Nuclear Medicine, Diagnostic Radiology, Gynecological Oncology, Clinical Pathology, Clinical Cytology,Hematology and Internal Medicine.
M.D. from the faculty of medicine, Royal Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. Have also been an exchange student at the Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem Israel. Former medical consultant, Swedish National Board of Radiation Protection. Former Police Surgeon and Medical Examiner, Stockholm Police Department. Former Chief Medical Officer, The Royal Guards, The Royal Horse Guards and the Royal Household Brigade, Royal Swedish Army Medical Corps. Now in private practice in Stockholm, Sweden.
I also answer questions in these other categories: General History,
Military History,
Brain Tumors,
Breast Cancer,
Colon Cancer
Question I had chemotherapy (BACOD x6) and radiationtherapy to my chest and right armpit for non-hodgkin's lymphoma 11 years ago (actually there was some disagreement about whether it was hodgkins or not). I am now getting scared of long term side effects of the treatment, in particular radiation. I was 23-24 years old at the time, and I understand that there is an increased risk of breast and lung cancer as well as of sarcoma from the radiation to my armpit. I do not smoke. What do you think the relative risks are of getting each of these three types of cancer and when. Any information would be much appreciated. Many thanks. Isa
Answer Yes there is a risk that is true. But it is also true that at that time you had a malignant lymphoma that needed that kind of treatment in order to be cured! Since 11 years have passed since then without - I assume - a relapse you most probably are cured! Furthermore, the treatment you received was - and still is - the only known and available treatment that could cure you! Without it you would be dead by now and you would have died quite a few years ago without it too. So there was really no choice. On one side certain known risks and on the other your sure death. So in spite of risks I think you have to be grateful that the treatment existed and was available! And we are still just talking about possible risks, nothing more. Nothing may happen. But your lymphoma did happen that was a certainty and something had to be done about it. Death will come to us all sooner or later in one form or another. The only things we do not know is when, where, how and why. But sure it is. So no use thinking about it or worry about it. The only thing we can do is to avoid unnecessary risks (like for example smoking) and if a problem appears to try to fix it by one way or another as was done here. The risks in your case are also not big and not much higher than they would be anyway without the treatment. If we put your risk of coming down with a malignancy at any time in your life to be somewhere around 20% which is not unreasonable we can see where that leads us. Now you have already had one such malignancy (your lymphoma). Your risk of coming down with a new unrelated malignancy (without considering your treatment)is therefore 20%x20%=4%
In reality it is higher due to your treatment. But even if we doubled it - which IS somewhat unreasonable - your present risk would not be higher than 8%. I suggest that you have regular medical check ups, let us say once per year, in order to check if any such problem is appearing but apart from that you should try not to think about it! Good luck!
