Klin Onkol 2020; 33(Suppl 1): 48-51. DOI: 10.14735/amko2020S48.
Background: Radiotherapy is considered a potential carcinogenic factor; however, a patient with a cured tumor has a min. 14% risk of developing another tumor regardless of previous anticancer systemic therapy or radiotherapy. However, anticancer systemic therapy, radiotherapy, and, of course, genetic predispositions, contribute to the increased risk of developing secondary cancers; that is undoubted. Even the younger age of the patient has an effect on the increased risk of radiation-induced malignancies. With modern effective anticancer treatment, a further prolongation of the survival of patients with malignancies, and thus a higher incidence of secondary tumors, can be expected. Empirically, it can be stated that many published works that describe the formation of secondary tumors after radiation treatment are not based on the definition of a secondary tumor according to the Cahan criteria (especially: the secondary tumor must occur in the irradiated field, histologically it is a different type of tumor and the minimum latency should be longer than 4 years). Purpose: The article presents an overview of retrospective studies on the topic of secondary tumors, an overview of common secondary malignancies, their possible cause with a focus on radiotherapy and the possibility of reducing the risk of radiation-induced malignancies using modern radiotherapy techniques, lower energies and reduced radiation volumes. Conclusion: The risk of radiation-induced tumors is often unnecessarily overestimated in advertising and on social networks for commercial reasons.
