Subsequent Cancer in Survivors of First Primary Cancers

Survivors of first primary cancers have excess risk for subsequent primary cancers. In this retrospective cohort study, researchers quantified that risk by using U.S. national cancer surveillance registries to identify 1.5 million patients (mean age, 60) who survived first primary cancers for at least 5 years and were then followed for a mean of 7 more years. Younger survivors (age range, 25–39) were followed for a mean of nearly 15 years.

In highly adjusted analyses, risk for developing subsequent primary cancer was ≈10% higher for cancer survivors than for the general population; risks for dying were 45% higher for men and 33% higher for women who survived cancer than for men and women in the general population. The absolute risks for deat…