While children or adolescents have more than a 70 percent chance of surviving cancer, the treatments involved can often to lead to premature menopause in women. A study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute said the causative factors behind menopause at an early age were radiation and certain forms of chemotherapy. In the study, premature menopause (defined as menopause before age 40) was examined in nearly 3,000 childhood cancer survivors over the age of 18 as identified in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study and 1,065 female siblings of survivors.
The researchers observed that premature menopause occurred in 126 childhood cancer survivors and 33 siblings. Non-surgical premature menopause occurred more frequently in childhood cancer survivors. For cancer patients treated with both abdominal-pelvic radiation and alkylating drugs (used in chemotherapy), the cumulative incidence of premature menopause was nearly 30 percent.
Researcher Charles A. Sklar, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, said that age, radiation to the ovaries and treatment with alkylating chemotherapy all increased a cancer survivor's risk of premature menopause. "The results of this study will facilitate counseling current survivors about their future risk of premature menopause and will aid in designing new regimens that seek to diminish late ovarian toxicity," Sklar wrote in the study.
Source: Journal of the National Cancer Institute
