Researchers used Utah Population Database to assess risk of cancer among parents, siblings, or offspring of children with cancer
In a study of the family medical histories of 4482 patients diagnosed with childhood cancers, study leader Joshua Schiffman, MD, medical director at Huntsman Cancer Institute’s High Risk Pediatric Cancer Clinic and a pediatric hematologist/oncologist at the University of Utah Department of Pediatrics, and researchers determined that when compared with families with no childhood cancer diagnoses, the cancer risk is twofold for close family members of a child diagnosed with cancer at age 18 years or younger.
Study results are published online in the International Journal of Cancer.
Source: Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah Media Release.