Health
Some breast cancer patients could be at risk of another type of cancer, study reveals
Women with breast cancer who have received chemotherapy are at an increased risk of developing lung cancer, a new study suggests.
Epic Research, a health data group based in Delaware, found that women in this category have a 57% higher lung cancer risk than those who received radiation.
In comparison to patients who received endocrine therapy, those who have undergone chemo have a 171% increase in lung cancer risk, the study found.
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In a statement sent to Fox News Digital, the Epic Research team said the key takeaway from their research is that primary lung cancer is more than twice as prevalent in women who were previously diagnosed with breast cancer — compared to those who did not have it.
“Furthermore, women who had breast cancer and received chemotherapy have the greatest risk of subsequent primary lung cancer,” the researchers wrote.
Women with breast cancer who have received chemotherapy are at an increased risk of developing lung cancer, a new study is suggesting. (iStock)
“This suggests that patients diagnosed with breast cancer are at an increased risk of developing second primary lung cancer, especially if their treatment included chemotherapy.”
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The research group studied more than two million women ages 50 to 84 who received a screening mammogram between 2010 and 2023.
Patients with an elevated breast cancer risk due to a previous breast or lung cancer diagnosis, those who had been screened within the past three months and those who started mammogram screenings prior to age 50 were excluded from the study.
“This could potentially limit the generalizability of our findings,” the researchers said.
The research group (not pictured) studied more than two million women ages 50 to 84 who received a mammogram screening between 2010 and 2023. (iStock)
The team encouraged patients with a history of breast cancer — especially those who have had chemotherapy — to monitor for the development of primary lung cancer.
“It is important to remember that while our study found a correlation between breast cancer, its treatments and subsequent primary lung cancer, this does not mean that every woman who has had breast cancer will develop lung cancer,” the researchers said.
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Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, told Fox News Digital that one cancer can cause a “higher genetic risk” for others.
“We don’t know the exact etiology, but one cancer puts you in a higher genetic risk pool for other cancers, either because of cancer genes that increase the risk of both, or because of a tendency for mutations that is increased in this pool,” he said.
“It could also be because of environmental factors or carcinogens, including diet, or the result of toxicities from the treatment for breast cancer,” Siegel added.
The researchers encouraged patients with a history of breast cancer, especially those who have had chemotherapy, to monitor for the development of primary lung cancer. (iStock)
Jack Manley, M.D., head of new markets and growth at Viz.ai, a San Francisco-based AI-powered disease detection platform, shared with Fox News Digital that Epic Research’s findings and methodology speak to “the power of incorporating multi-modal data in predictive algorithms.”
Said Manley as well, “Companies with capabilities to incorporate both structured and unstructured EHR (electronic health record) data with conventional imaging will have a higher predictive performance than those that don’t.”
He was not involved in the study.
“Currently, a large majority of patients with pulmonary nodules (a possible indicator of early lung cancer) are missed on conventional imaging, while less than half of these detected patients receive subsequent guideline-recommended follow up,” he said.
Artificial intelligence tools are “well-positioned” to address these challenges, Manley noted — but EHR integration is “key to finding those patients at the highest risk.”
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Eating too much salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but new research suggests it could trick the immune system into prematurely aging the blood vessels.
A preclinical study recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association has identified a biological chain reaction that links a salty diet to cardiovascular decay.
Scientists at the University of South Alabama observed that mice on a high-salt diet experienced rapid deterioration in their blood vessel function.
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After just four weeks of high sodium intake, the small arteries responsible for regulating blood flow lost their ability to relax, according to a press release.
The team found that the cells lining these vessels had entered a state of cellular senescence, a form of premature cellular aging in which cells stop dividing and release a mix of inflammatory signals that can damage surrounding tissue.
Excess salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but a new study goes deeper into its effects on the cardiovascular system. (iStock)
The researchers tried to replicate this damage by exposing blood vessel cells directly to salt in a laboratory dish, but the cells showed no harmful effects.
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This suggests that salt isn’t directly causing damage to the vascular lining but that the real culprit may be the body’s own defense mechanism, the researchers noted.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16 (IL-16), which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16, which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study. (iStock)
Once these cells age, they fail to produce nitric oxide, the essential gas that tells arteries to dilate and stay flexible.
To test whether this process could be reversed, the team turned to a class of experimental drugs known as senolytics.
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Using a cancer medication called navitoclax, which selectively clears out aged and dysfunctional cells, the researchers were able to restore nearly normal blood vessel function in the salt-fed mice, the release stated.
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By removing the decaying cells created by the high-salt diet, the drug allowed the remaining healthy tissue to maintain its elasticity and respond correctly to blood flow demands.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system into stopping the cells from dividing, the study suggests. (iStock)
The study did have some limitations. The transition from mouse models to human treatment remains a significant hurdle, the team cautioned.
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Senolytic drugs like navitoclax are still being studied for safety, and the team emphasized that previous trials have shown mixed results regarding their impact on artery plaque.
Additionally, the researchers have not yet confirmed whether the same IL-16 pathway is the primary driver of vascular aging in humans.
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Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables was found to have a surprising link to lung cancer among younger non-smokers, early research suggests.
The observational study, led by Jorge Nieva, M.D., of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center at Keck Medicine, was presented this month at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting in San Diego. It has not yet been peer-reviewed.
Researchers looked at dietary, smoking and demographic data for 187 patients who were diagnosed with lung cancer at age 50 or younger.
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They found that among non-smokers, there was a link between healthier-than-average diets – rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains – and the chance of lung cancer development.
Young lung cancer patients ate more servings of dark green vegetables, legumes and whole grains compared to the average U.S. adult, the researchers found.
Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables was found to have a surprising link to lung cancer among younger non-smokers, early research suggests. (iStock)
The researchers hypothesized that pesticides applied to conventionally grown produce could be a possible factor in the disease association.
“Commercially produced (non-organic) fruits, vegetables and whole grains are more likely to be associated with a higher residue of pesticides than dairy, meat and many processed foods,” according to Nieva. He also noted that agricultural workers exposed to pesticides tend to have higher rates of lung cancer.
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“There is a large subset of lung cancer patients whose disease is not caused by smoking,” Nieva told Fox News Digital.
The disease is becoming more common in non-smokers 50 and younger, especially women – despite the fact that smoking rates have been falling for decades, the researcher noted.
The researchers hypothesized that pesticides applied to conventionally grown produce could be a possible factor in the disease association. (iStock)
“These patients tend to have eaten much healthier diets before their diagnosis than the average American,” he went on. “We need to support research into understanding why Americans – and women in particular – who no longer smoke very much are still having lung cancer,” he said.
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The study did have some limitations, Nieva acknowledged, primarily that it relied on survey data and was limited by the participants’ memories of their food intake.
“Also, the survey participants were self-selected, and this could have biased the findings,” he told Fox News Digital.
“There is a large subset of lung cancer patients whose disease is not caused by smoking.”
The researchers did not test specific foods for pesticides, relying instead on average pesticide levels for certain types of food. Looking ahead, they plan to test patients’ blood and urine samples to directly measure pesticide levels, Nieva said.
Although the study shows only an association and does not prove that pesticides caused lung cancer, Nieva recommends that people wash their produce before eating and choose organic foods whenever possible.
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“This work represents a critical step toward identifying modifiable environmental factors that may contribute to lung cancer in young adults,” said Nieva. “Our hope is that these insights can guide both public health recommendations and future investigation into lung cancer prevention.”
“It is possible that the increased lung cancer risk could be due to pesticide exposure in whole farmed foods, but is by no means certain,” a doctor said. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, said the study is “interesting,” but that it “raises far more questions than it answers.”
“It is a small study (around 150) and observational, so no proof,” the doctor, who was not involved in the research, told Fox News Digital.
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“It is possible that the increased lung cancer risk could be due to pesticide exposure in whole farmed foods, but it is by no means certain,” Siegel went on. “How much exposure is needed? How much of it gets into food and in which areas? This requires much further study.”
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Kayla Nichols, communications director for Pesticide Action & Agroecology Network, a distributed global network, said the organization agrees with the study’s conclusion that more research should be done on the rise in lung cancer, particularly in individuals eating diets higher in produce and fiber.
“There is a large subset of lung cancer patients whose disease is not caused by smoking,” the researcher told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
“There is a bounty of existing research that already links pesticide exposure to increased risk of multiple types of cancers,” Nichols, who was also not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital. She called for more research on chronic, low-level exposures to pesticides, as well as more effective policies to protect the public from pesticide residues on food.
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The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, as well as industry partners including AstraZeneca and Genentech, among others.
Fox News Digital reached out to several pesticide companies and trade groups for comment.
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