ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 27, 1997 TAG: 9703270032
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BOSTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
A National Cancer Institute study found the risk was greatest for children who were under 10 when they had their transplants.
Bone marrow transplants for curing cancer can themselves cause cancer many years later, a study found.
The reason appears to be the high doses of radiation that are a crucial part of marrow transplants.
Bone marrow transplants are widely used to treat leukemia and other blood cancers. Typically, doctors give high doses of chemotherapy and radiation to kill diseased bone marrow, then replace it with marrow from a donor.
The treatment can often cure these cancers. However, doctors were unsure how often the treatment prompts the growth of other cancers that emerge years later.
In the latest study, Rochelle Curtis and colleagues from the National Cancer Institute followed up on almost 20,000 people who received bone marrow transplants between 1964 and 1992. They published their results in today's New England Journal of Medicine.
During the follow-up, the marrow patients developed 80 new cases of nonblood tumors, while 30 would have been expected in this group.
The risk rose as time went by and was eight times higher than expected 10 years after the transplants.
The researchers found the risk was greatest for children who were under 10 when they had their marrow transplants.
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