By Jimmy Downs

Saturday Dec 8, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- A new study published in Annals of Oncology suggests that radiation therapy for breast cancer can lead to the development of esophageal cancer.

Radiation therapy or radiotherapy intended for breast cancer treatment is known to increase patients' odds of developing other types of malignancies like leukemia and ischemic heart disease.

L. M. Morton at Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, in Bethesda, Maryland, USA and colleagues conducted the current study and found esophageal cancer risk increased with increasing doses of radiation and with doses of greater than 35 Gy, breast cancer patients would be 8 times as likely as controls to develop esophageal cancer.

Esophageal exposure to ionizing radiation, which is commonly used in diagnostic tools and breast cancer treatment, were found due largely to use of supraclavicular and internal mammary chain treatments, the researchers report.

For the study, the researchers analyzed data from a nested case-control study of esophageal cancer among 289,748 female breast cancer survivors from five cancer registries including 252 cases and 488 matched controls.

The researchers concluded "Esophageal cancer is a radiation dose-related complication of radiotherapy for breast cancer," and "at higher esophageal doses, the risk warrants consideration in radiotherapy risk assessment and long-term follow-up."