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Certain patients with breast cancer at increased risk for MDS/AML
Kaplan H. BMC Cancer. 2011;doi:10.1186/1471-2407-11-260.
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Certain women with breast cancer, including those aged younger than 65 years and those treated with radiation with or without chemotherapy, may be at an increased risk for myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia vs. the average population.
Researchers examined data from 5,790 patients with breast cancer diagnosed between 1990 and 2005. They compared the incidence of these hematologic malignancies with SEER incidence data in the general population.
Patients were treated with surgery alone (7%), surgery plus radiation therapy (48%), surgery plus chemotherapy (11%) or combined surgery, radiation and chemotherapy (34%). Sixty-nine percent of the patients were aged younger than 65 years.
Seventeen cases of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) or AML were found among the cohort. Although these women were four times more likely to be diagnosed with MDS or AML (RR=3.94; 95% CI, 2.34-6.15), the overall risk affected a small percentage of patients (0.29%), the researchers wrote.
Women aged younger than 65 years were at increased risk for these hematologic malignancies. Women in this age group had an RR of 10.88 for MDS (95% CI, 3.84-24.03) and 5.32 for AML (95% CI, 1.31-14.04).
In addition, there was an increased rate of MDS and AML among women treated with combined surgery and radiation (RR=3.32; 95% CI, 1.42-6.45) and those treated with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy (RR=6.32; 95% CI, 3.03-11.45).
Overall, 30% of the women with MDS and 71% of women with AML died of disease.
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