Full Body and Abdominal Radiation Treatments May Increase Risk of Diabetes for Pediatric Cancer Survivors

Pediatric patients treated with full-body or abdominal radiation therapy could face almost double the risk of diabetes mellitus as they age, according to a recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Childhood cancer survivors treated with full-body radiation face 1.8 times the risk of diabetes compared to their siblings, reported Lillian R. Meachem, M.D., et al, in “Diabetes Mellitus in Long-term Survivors of Childhood Cancer Increased Risk Associated With Radiation Therapy: A Report for the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study,” published online Aug. 10, 2009. This was true even after the researchers adjusted their results for body mass index, age, gender, race and ethnicity, household income and insurance.

The study included 8,599 survivors in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, along with 2,936 randomly selected siblings of the survivors. Participants self-reported diabetes mellitus, with 2.5 percent of survivors and 1.7 percent of siblings reportedly diagnosed with the condition.

“In adjusted models, an increased risk of diabetes mellitus was associated with total body irradiation (OR, 7.2; 95 percent CI, 3.4-15.0; P < .001), abdominal irradiation (OR, 2.7; 95 percent CI, 1.9-3.8; P < .001), use of alkylating agents (OR, 1.7; 95 percent CI, 1.2-2.3; P < .01) and younger age at diagnosis (0-4 years; OR, 2.4; 95% CI, 1.3-4.6; P < .01),” stated the authors.

Meachem, et al, concluded that childhood cancer survivors treated with total body or abdominal irradiation, “have an increased risk of diabetes that appears unrelated to body mass index or physical inactivity.”