Second Cancers are on the rise

Second cancers are on the rise. Nearly 1 in 5 new cases in the U.S. now involves someone who has had the disease before. When doctors talk about second cancers, they mean a different tissue type or a different site, not a recurrence or spread of the original tumor. About 19 percent of cancers in the United States now are second-or-more cases, a recent study found. In the 1970s, it was only 9 percent. Over that period, the number of first cancers rose 70 percent while the number of second cancers rose 300 percent.
Medically, second cancers pose special challenges. Treatment choices may be more limited. For example, radiation usually isn't given to the same area of the body more than once. Some drugs also have lifetime dose limits to avoid nerve or heart damage.