Childhood cancer survivors at greater risk in middle age

Scientists at the University of Birmingham have found that survivors of childhood cancers are four times more likely than the general population to develop a new cancer. The results are published online today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The researchers, funded by Cancer Research UK, followed the health of over 18,000 childhood cancer survivors** for an average of 25 years. They found that in middle age, survivors were at greater risk of developing certain types of new cancers, particularly of the digestive or genitourinary systems, such as bowel and kidney cancers. Among the survivors there were 837 new cancers, almost four times the 216 that would be expected in the same number of people in the general population. They also found that five per cent of survivors had developed a new cancer by the age of 38, while in the general population it took until 54 years to reach this same figure. Study author Dr Raoul Reulen, based in the School of Health and Population Sciences at the University, said: "We know that survivors of childhood cancer are at increased risk of developing new cancers, but we didn't know what the long term risks were as they reached middle age.