What groups of women are at especially high risk of developing radiation-induced breast cancer?
Perhaps the group that is at highest risk is children who received radiation treatments for malignant and nonmalignant conditions. It has been estimated that up to 50% of young girls treated for Hodgkin’s disease in the past with very high radiation doses may develop breast cancer in later life. Infants treated for enlarged thymus glands, children treated for various forms of cancer, and women irradiated for benign breast conditions, including breast inflammation after giving birth, also are at high risk. Most of these types of radiation treatments for non-malignant conditions are no longer given. During treatments for cancer medical oncologists continue to strive to reduce radiation exposures to all healthy tissue, including the breast. What should a woman do if she received radiation treatments to the chest as a young woman? Women exposed to high levels of radiation in the past (e.g., radiotherapy to the chest for non-malignant or malignant conditions), should make sure they bring th
