LAUSR

In this issue of Blood , Opstal-van Winden and colleagues report the results of a genome-wide association study to identify constitutional genetic variants (single nucleotide polymorphisms; SNPs) associated with risk of developing radiation-induced breast cancer in Hodgkin lymphoma survivors. 1 Therapy-induced cancer is a potentially lethal complication of treatment of a first primary cancer, and breast cancer is one of the most common therapy-induced cancers in long-term survivors of Hodgkin lymphoma treated with radiotherapy. Travis et al 2 estimated the cumulative absolute risks of breast cancer following a ≥40 Gy dose at age 25 to be 11% and 29% at 20 and 30 years, respectively. Data from a large cancer registry showed relative risk of breast cancer to be ∼6 times higher in Hodgkin lymphoma survivors compared with the general population. 3 As such, the prospective identification of individuals at high risk of radiogenic breast cancer could facilitate improvements in the clinical management of Hodgkin lymphoma patients, reducing subsequent cancer risk and improving outcomes.