Radiation Dose, Chemotherapy and Risk of Lung Cancer After Breast Cancer Treatment Carole Rubino Unit of Cancer Epidemiology, National Institute of Health and Medical Research (U521 INSERM), Villejuif, France Florent de Vathaire Unit of Cancer Epidemiology, National Institute of Health and Medical Research (U521 INSERM), Villejuif, France Ibrahima Diallo Unit of Cancer Epidemiology, National Institute of Health and Medical Research (U521 INSERM), Villejuif, France Unit of Radiophysic, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France Akthar Shamsaldin Unit of Cancer Epidemiology, National Institute of Health and Medical Research (U521 INSERM), Villejuif, France Unit of Radiophysic, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France Emmanuel Grimaud Unit of Radiophysic, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France Martine Labbe Unit of Cancer Epidemiology, National Institute of Health and Medical Research (U521 INSERM), Villejuif, France Genevieve Contesso Unit of pathology, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France Monique Le Unit of Cancer Epidemiology, National Institute of Health and Medical Research (U521 INSERM), Villejuif, France Abstract It is of particular concern to evaluate the risk of lung cancer occurrence after breast cancer treatment as women with breast cancer quite often undergo radiation therapy as part of their initial treatment and their life expectancy remains long. From a roster of 7711 women initially treated for breast cancer between 1954 and 1984, a cohort-study was performed among 4171 1-year survivors followed during the period 1975–1995. The relationship between the radiation dose received by the lung and the risk of lung cancer was then evaluated in a nested case-control study of 11 breast-cancer patients who developed lung cancer and 22 controls matched for age at diagnosis of breast cancer, period of initial treatment and length of follow-up. Among the 4171 women, six developed lung cancer during the entire follow-up as compared to 5.4 cases expected (SIR = 1.1, 95%CI: 0.4–2.3). When considering only the women initially treated by radiotherapy with or without adjunction of chemotherapy and excluding the 10 first years of follow-up, the SIR was significantly increased (SIR = 3.2, 95%CI: 1.0–7.4). In the case-control study, nine of the 11 lung cancers occurred in the ipsilateral lung and two in the trachea. The overall odds ratio (OR) of lung cancer associated with initial radiotherapy was 1.4 (95%CI: 0.2–11.1) and an excess in the OR of 7% (90%CI: ? to 41%, p = 0.10) per gray delivered to the site of lung cancer was evidenced. Our results agree with previous studies in favor of an increased risk of lung cancer after radiation therapy for breast cancer. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment 75 (1): 15-24, September 2002 Copyright © 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers All rights reserved Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.