Younger Breast Cancer Survivors Risk Disease in Other Breast

Oct. 16 -- WEDNESDAY, Oct. 15 (HealthDay News) -- Young women receiving radiation after having surgery for breast cancer are at increased risk of developing a new tumor in the opposite -- or contralateral -- breast, a new Dutch study suggests.

And the risk jumps even higher if the woman also has a significant family history of breast cancer.

The study, appearing online in the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, looked at fairly recent radiation techniques (1970 to 1986), but experts pointed out that these techniques are continually being refined and improved.

"It's a very interesting study, [but] radiation techniques have changed dramatically over the last 25 years and a lot of these patients were treated with much older techniques," said Dr. Jay Brooks, chairman of hematology/oncology at Ochsner Health System in Baton Rouge, La.

The risk of contralateral breast cancer was also greatest when three or more family members had a history of breast cancer, indicating that some of the women in the study might have the risk-raising BRCA1 or 2 genetic mutations. These mutations weren't tested for in the study.

"Today, we're able to better identify women who may not be breast-conservation candidates," Brooks said.

Study author Maartje J. Hooning, of the department of medical oncology at Erasmus Medical Center Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center in Rotterdam, said that even though "radiation techniques of today will lead to a lower dose to the contralateral breast than the techniques presented in our study, treating clinicians should be aware of the existing dose-response relationship for risk of contralateral breast cancer. Especially in young women, the radiation dose to the contralateral breast should be kept as low as possible."

According to the American Cancer Society, radiation therapy is usually employed to destroy lingering cancer cells after a lumpectomy (also known as breast-conserving surgery), after a mastectomy involving a tumor larger than 5 centimeters in size, or when cancer is found in the lymph nodes.