An Alert from Anton Bilkchik MD: Hodgkin’s Disease Treatment May Raise Stomach Cancer Risk

Anton Bilkchik, MD wants you to know that people treated for Hodgkin’s disease may be at increased risk for developing stomach cancer, according to a new study published in the August 26, 2013, online issue of Journal of Clinical Oncology. The risk seems to be dose-dependent, meaning that patients who received more of certain chemotherapy and radiation therapies had a higher risk than those people who received lesser doses.

Hodgkin’s disease is a cancer of the lymph tissue found in the lymph nodes, spleen, liver, bone marrow and other parts of the body. Doctors typically use chemotherapy and radiation to treat patients with this condition. The five-year survival rate for Hodgkin’s disease is quite good – about 90 percent when diagnosed early, before the cancer has spread, according to the American Cancer Society.

However, some of these survivors develop problems later in life, especially those exposed to high doses of chemotherapy and radiation. Scientists measure exposure to radiation in terms of gray units, or Gy. Researchers in the study found that patients who had 25 Gy of radiation, or more, to the stomach, and doses of procarbazine — a type of chemotherapy drug effective in treating Hodgkin’s disease — greater than 5600 mg/m², had a 77.5-fold higher risk of developing stomach cancer. However, patients who received any lesser amount of procarbazine, in combination with less than 25 Gy of radiation to the stomach, had no increased risk for stomach cancer.

If you have Hodgkin’s disease and are concerned about the increased risk for stomach cancer that may be associated with your treatment, Anton Bilchik recommends you talk with your doctor to determine your risk.