The offspring of patients who had childhood cancer decades ago need not fear an increased risk of genetic disease.
In a new study, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and the National Cancer Institute interviewed 1062 adults who as children were treated for cancer between 1945 and 1975. In evaluations of their offspring, 3.4% had been diagnosed with a genetic disease. In a control population of 2043 adults who had not been treated for childhood cancer, 3.1% of 4544 offspring had genetic abnormalities.
Despite the good news, the researchers said they cannot rule out the possibility that new therapies or combinations of existing agents in higher doses now being used to treat childhood cancer could cause permanent damage to germ-line cells. The report appeared in the January issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics.
