When cancer therapies cause cancer

When cancer therapies cause cancer

03/05/2011

Medically conventional cancer therapies can in turn cause cancer. Patients should always follow after-care after tumor treatments. The cancer expert and medical doctor referred to this. Harald Biersack on the sidelines of the Congress of Internists in Wiesbaden.

Long-term consequences of cancer treatments
Patients on whom cancer treatment has been successful should always follow follow-up appointments. After all, cancer therapies can have serious health consequences for the person affected. Therefore, already successfully treated cancer patients should continue „stay alert“, Since the most aggressive for the body tumor treatments can still cause long-term consequences years later. After radiation therapy, the risk of skin cancer increases by a factor of two, as the internist dr. Harald Biersack explained.

By radiotherapy malignant tumors
After radiotherapy also threatened malignant changes in the bone marrow and the immune system. Diseases such as blood cancer (leukemia) and lymphoma are therefore possible. The long-term consequences include cancers such as breast cancer and thyroid cancer as well as the rarer disease sarcomas. The sarcoma is a cancerous tumor originating from the supporting tissue and metastasized early into the blood vessels. After chemotherapy, additional damage to the heart of the patient may occur. After radiation therapy, lung diseases may occur.

Have follow-up examinations performed annually
In order to detect consequences early on, former cancer patients should definitely follow all after-care examinations. "The increased risk of patients for the sequelae will never go down to zero“, but reminded Biersack. Even after 30 or 40 years, complications of the therapy could occur. Therefore, after radiotherapy every year repeated and thorough examinations of the whole organism necessary, which can also be performed at the family doctor. If abnormalities of the body or symptoms are noticed, these should absolutely be taken seriously.

Aggressive cancer treatments on the scientific test bench
At present, aggressive treatment methods of conventional cancer therapy are being put to the scientific test. In any case, there is no alternative but to destroy the cancerous tumor in the body of the patient, said the expert. The complete destruction of cancer cells can usually not be achieved by milder therapies, argues the doctor.

Cause for later cancer has already been scientifically confirmed
Scientists at the Biocenter at the Medical University of Innsbruck recently found out from a study that cancer therapies in which activated programmed cell death is induced by stimulated endogenous functions can be a cause for later cancers. According to the results, it can now be clarified why children who suffer from leukemia often have cancer again 20 or 30 years later. „Around 15 percent of new cancer cases are now new tumor types that occur in cancer survivors.“ said at that time Andreas Villunger, head of the section for developmental immunology. Read: Cancer treatment causes cancer? (Sb)

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Thermotherapy: with heat for cancer
Cancer therapy causes cancer?

Currently the 117th Congress of the German Society of Internal Medicine (DGIM) is taking place in Wiesbaden. More than 8,000 doctors and scientists advise and discuss new findings in medicine. The congress ends today with a closing event.