(May 16, 2008)--New research suggests children who survive cancer face a much greater risk of heart problems later in life than their brothers and sisters who did not have cancer.
Compared to their healthy siblings, they had five to 10 times greater risk of heart problems, ranging from clogged arteries to heart failure and valve disease, although the incidence of problems was low in the University of Minnesota study that tracked more than 14,000 cancer survivors.
Two percent had hardening of the arteries, 4 percent had heart failure, 1 percent suffered a heart attack and 4 percent had a valve problem.
Doctors have long known that certain chemotherapy drugs and radiation can harm the heart, but it has been seen as a relatively small price to pay for beating cancer and cancer itself may damage the heart.
The American Society of Clinical Oncology released the study results.
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