Thinking more about radiation...

First of all, did you know that chemotherapy can also cause secondary malignancies? No one told me that. But I guess I didn't really have a choice. I still would have liked to know.

For Hodgkin's patients, the most common secondary cancers in order of prevalence are: Breast, Thyroid, Bone, Colorectal, Lung, Stomach.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women (after lung cancer). So, I'm interested in finding out how radiation will affect my chances of getting breast cancer.

A normal woman's risk of contracting breast cancer increases with her age. By age 30 a woman has a 1 in 129 chance of getting breast cancer. By age 40, 1 out of 68 and by age 50, 1 in 37 women will have breast cancer (stats found here).

However, the older you are, the less aggressive the cancer usually is... so you have a higher survival rate (younger than 45 = 81%; 45-64 = 85%; 65+ = 86%). Which is good, if you plan on having breast cancer.

As a group, Hodgkin's patients of all ages who received any type of treatment were at a fourfold increased risk for breast cancer, compared with general population rates. Hodgkin's patients treated with radiation at ages 24-29 were at seven times the risk (found through a study of 900 female Hodgkin's patients treated between 1961-1990). SEVEN TIMES THE RISK. uuuggh.

The problem is putting faith in our medical technology. How far have we come in the field of radiation since 1990? Dr. Mauch told me to cut the figures in half to find today's secondary cancer rate... but do I believe him? Where's his proof?