Childhood Cancer Survivors Exercise Less, Increasing Diabetes Risk
Posted 10-06-2009 at 03:57 PM by admin
Medical News Today
Article Date: 03 Oct 2009 - 1:00 PDT
In a study of adults who survived cancer as children, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators found that many survivors lead sedentary lifestyles and are more likely to be less physically active than their siblings. Childhood cancer survivors are at greater risk of diabetes, obesity and heart disease than the rest of the population.
Cancer treatments such as cranial radiation can damage the hypothalamus and pituitary; the result is an abnormal metabolism, which increases the risk of obesity and diabetes. Also, chemotherapy with the drug anthracycline increases the risk of heart disease; and radiation to the body can cause blood vessels to become less pliant.
"Physical activity is a key step that survivors can take to reduce the health risk of these effects," said Kiri Ness, Ph.D., of the Epidemiology and Cancer Control department at St. Jude. "Medical center programs to encourage physical activity in adult survivors could help significantly. However, one problem is that researchers have not firmly established the factors that affect cancer survivors' participation in physical activity."
To understand those factors, Ness and her colleagues drew data from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS), a St. Jude-led consortium of 30 centers in the United States and Canada. The study gathers extensive data from the participating centers on more than 20,000 childhood cancer survivors who received diagnoses between 1970 and 1986.
Read the rest of the article here.
© 2009 MediLexicon International Ltd
Article Date: 03 Oct 2009 - 1:00 PDT
In a study of adults who survived cancer as children, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators found that many survivors lead sedentary lifestyles and are more likely to be less physically active than their siblings. Childhood cancer survivors are at greater risk of diabetes, obesity and heart disease than the rest of the population.
Cancer treatments such as cranial radiation can damage the hypothalamus and pituitary; the result is an abnormal metabolism, which increases the risk of obesity and diabetes. Also, chemotherapy with the drug anthracycline increases the risk of heart disease; and radiation to the body can cause blood vessels to become less pliant.
"Physical activity is a key step that survivors can take to reduce the health risk of these effects," said Kiri Ness, Ph.D., of the Epidemiology and Cancer Control department at St. Jude. "Medical center programs to encourage physical activity in adult survivors could help significantly. However, one problem is that researchers have not firmly established the factors that affect cancer survivors' participation in physical activity."
To understand those factors, Ness and her colleagues drew data from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS), a St. Jude-led consortium of 30 centers in the United States and Canada. The study gathers extensive data from the participating centers on more than 20,000 childhood cancer survivors who received diagnoses between 1970 and 1986.
Read the rest of the article here.
© 2009 MediLexicon International Ltd
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