Cancer - radiotherapy causes it, too

Of the 13,000 patients who were treated with radiotherapy at one French clinic, 35 developed radiation-induced sarcomas (cancer of connective tissues such as bone or muscle), which appeared from three to 20 years after treatment. Fifteen patients died from the sarcomas, and around a third managed to survive longer than five years. Interestingly, the risk after radiation therapy increases with time (Cancer, 2005; 104: 856-63).

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