Study shows increased risk of secondary acute myeloid leukemia after cancer treatment

A study published in the journal Cancer by the American Cancer Society examines the link between initial cancer treatments and the subsequent development of blood cancers. Researchers analyzed data from the Osaka Cancer Registry regarding 9,841 patients in Japan diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) between 1990 and 2020. The findings indicate that the annual incidence of therapy-related AML rose from 0.13 per 100,000 residents in 1990 to 0.36 per 100,000 in 2020. Furthermore, the proportion of therapy-related AML cases nearly doubled over the studied period. Data shows that the most frequent primary cancers diagnosed before the development of AML were other blood cancers at 23.1%, followed by breast cancer at 14.6%, colorectal cancer at 11.5%, and stomach cancer at 8.7%. Over the three decades, there was a notable increase in breast cancer-related cases and a decrease in stomach cancer-related cases. This population-based study highlights a persistent trend in treatment-associated leukemia development.