LISA BASHORE, PhD, APRN, CPNP-PC, CPON

CHILDHOOD CANCER SURVIVORS may worry that treatment or genetic predisposition (risk of cancer due to our genes) or the combination of the two will result in a second cancer. Second cancers (or subsequent malignancies) are different than a recurrence of the first cancer. A second cancer occurs after treatment (e.g. radiation and/or chemotherapy) for a first (primary) cancer and is a new and different type of cancer which usually arises in a different organ or tissue from the first cancer (American Cancer Society, 2024). The chance of developing a second cancer depends on your original type of cancer, age of diagnosis, biological sex, types of therapy given, environmental exposures, genetic predisposition, and health behaviors. Overall, for most survivors, the chance of getting a second cancer is very small.