Children who undergo radiotherapy treatment are likely to be at higher risk of developing diabetes in later life, an article published online first in the Lancet oncology has revealed.
According to experts the clinical implications of the study are important, since radiation remains an integral part of therapy for many children suffering from cancer. Further study is therefore needed to clarify the mechanisms underlying diabetes after abdominal radiation, they say.
In their study experts analysed more than 2,500 patient questionnaires and medical records from French and British people who had cancer in childhood but survived for at least 20 years after undergoing treatment and discovered the link between diabetes and radiation.
According to the study, overall, at age 45, 2.3% patients who had not received radiotherapy had been diagnosed with diabetes, as compared with 6.6% of those people who had been treated for childhood cancer with radiotherapy.
The researchers discovered that in cases where the tail of the pancreas was exposed to radiation, the patients were more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes later in life, although radiation exposure to other parts of the pancreas did not affect diabetes rates.
The authors speculate that this is could be because the tail of the pancreas contains a type of cell involved in insulin production.