Radiotherapy for Cancer Treatment Escalates Diabetes Risks in Children

Exposing the pancreas to radiation during radiotherapy for cancer treatment can escalate children's chances of developing diabetes later, a new study says.

Dr. Florent de Vathaire and colleagues used data from medical records and patient questionnaires and looked at about 2,500 childhood cancer survivors.

"The pancreas needs to be regarded as a critical organ when planning radiation therapy, particularly in children. Until now, the pancreas was one of the few organs not considered at risk of normal tissue complication in the French and the UK national guidelines for cancer radiation therapy," Dr. Vathaire, one of the authors of the paper, said in a statement. "Our findings indicate that the pancreas is an organ at risk during radiation therapy and has to be contoured when planning treatment, to ensure a radiation dose of as low as possible." 

All the French and British patients, who participated in the study survived almost 20 years after the treatment. At age 45, 6.6 percent of the participants were found to be diabetic compared with 2.3 percent of patients who didn't undergo radiotherapy. Further investigation found occurrences were more common when the tail of pancreas was exposed to radiation during the treatment.

A high dosage was also found increasing the risk- radiation dose of 24.2 Grays to pancreas increasing the risk by 12.6 times.

Patients of nephroblastoma  or kidney cancer (14.7 percent) were found in the risk list as the radiation therapy happens in the abdominal area, thus exposing the pancreas to the radiation.

After reaching a conclusion, the researchers expect their findings helping to reduce the risks.

"Further study is therefore needed to clarify the mechanisms underlying diabetes after abdominal radiation. Understanding these mechanisms will, hopefully, result in the development of targeted interventions that will lead to a reduction in risk in this population," Kevin Oeffinger of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, said.