Survival at a cost: common cancer treatment carries huge risks
While the number of cancer survivors has tripled since the 1970s and continues to grow decades later, the cost of that survival for many of them has been the development of secondary cancers and cardiovascular disease related to radiation treatment, according to an upcoming report by a scientific committee.
The committee, convened by the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements met over a period of five years to consider some of the most serious repercussions of radiation therapy and make recommendations to more comprehensively assess the risks related to treatment. They plan to issue a comprehensive report of their findings, and have also published commentary in this week’s Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
