Genetic susceptibility to breast cancer in lymphoma survivors

摘要

In this issue of Blood, Opstal-van Winden and colleagues report the results of a genome-wide association study to identify constitutional genetic variants (single nucleotide polymorphisms; SNPs) associated with risk of developing radiation-induced breast cancer in Hodgkin lymphoma survivors.(1) Therapy-induced cancer is a potentially lethal complication of treatment of a first primary cancer, and breast cancer is one of the most common therapy-induced cancers in long-term survivors of Hodgkin lymphoma treated with radiotherapy. Travis et al(2) estimated the cumulative absolute risks of breast cancer following a >= 40 Gy dose at age 25 to be 11% and 29% at 20 and 30 years, respectively. Data from a large cancer registry showed relative risk of breast cancer to be similar to 6 times higher in Hodgkin lymphoma survivors compared with the general population.(3) As such, the prospective identification of individuals at high risk of radiogenic breast cancer could facilitate improvements in the clinical management of Hodgkin lymphoma patients, reducing subsequent cancer risk and improving outcomes.