Childhood cancer survivors may develop hypertension in adulthood

New York, Nov 23 (IANS) Kids who have survived cancer in their childhood are twice more likely to develop high blood pressure risk in their adulthood than the general population, a study said.

High blood pressure problems among people usually arise due to problems related to age, sex and fluctuations in the rates of the body mass index.

The study, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, stated that hypertension occurs among the general people who are usually a decade older in age than the childhood cancer survivors who become an easy target of the risk quiet fast.

"High blood pressure is an important modifiable risk factor that increases risk of heart problems in everyone. Research has shown that high blood pressure can have an even greater negative impact on survivors of childhood cancer who were treated with cardiotoxic therapies such as anthracyclines or chest radiation," said Todd M. Gibson, researcher at the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Tennessee, the US.

The researchers examined 3,016 adults to study their long-term health outcomes and found that the prevalence of hypertension was 2.6 times higher among childhood cancer survivors.

The results noted that hypertension increased over time, such as 13 per cent of the survivors developed high blood pressure at age 30, 37 per cent had hypertension at the age of 40, and more than 70 per cent of the survivors had hypertension by the age of 50.

The study found that exposure to radiotherapy or chemotherapy were not significantly associated with hypertension.

Previous studied have also shown that cancer treatments during the childhood can reduce cognitive flexibility and lead to a weaker short-term memory.

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