Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Radiation Treatment for Cancer Causes Diabetes in Children

Radiation Treatment for Cancer Causes Diabetes in Children

(NaturalNews) People who are undergo radiation therapy for childhood cancers are significantly more likely to develop diabetes as adults, according to a new study conducted by researchers from Emory University and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

A number of studies have found that radiation, chemotherapy, and other such treatments significantly shorten the lives of childhood cancer survivors.

"As a result of their curative therapies, childhood cancer survivors face an increased risk of morbidity and mortality," the researchers wrote. Nearly 75 percent of such children develop a chronic health condition within 30 years ofdiagnosis, while 42.4 percent develop severe, disabling or life-threatening health conditions. Because cardiovasculardisease is a major killer of childhood cancer survivors, the researchers examined the effect of radiation treatment on the risk of diabetes, a major correlate of cardiovascular mortality.

The researchers examined diabetes rates in 8,599 people who had been diagnosed with cancer before the age of 21, between 1970 and 1986. These rates were compared with 2,936 of their cancer-free siblings, who were randomly selected. All participants were screened for diabetes in 2003.

After adjusting for other diabetes risk factors including age, body mass index, ethnicity, exercise, income, insurance and race, the researchers found that those who had undergone cancer treatment as children were 1.8 times more likely to have diabetes as adults than their siblings were. Those who had been treated with abdominal radiation were 2.7 times more likely to have diabetes, while those who had been treated with whole-body radiation were a shocking 7.2 times more likely to be diabetic. ...

1 comment:

Pooja said...

Very strange. I have never heard anything like this. Many people are unaware how diabetes is caused. Diabetes occurs when pancreas does not secrete enough of the hormone insulin. The level of glucose increases the body. There are many causes of diabetes like some virus infection, exposure to food-borne chemical toxins, obesity, certain medicines like alloxan,
streptozocin, and thiazide. Diabetes is heredity in nature. For more details refer what causes diabetes