Study Reveals New Clues Into Childhood Cancer Survivors’ Increased Risk of Melanoma
Source: Cleveland Clinic, March 2025
Childhood cancer survivors have a more than two-fold increased risk of developing melanoma during their lifetime, compared to the general population, as well as a two-fold increased risk of death associated with a melanoma diagnosis. So reported a team of researchers in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
In a retrospective review of more than 25,000 participants, the largest study of its kind, the authors confirmed what experts have long suspected was true. “We’ve believed for a long time that melanoma as a subsequent malignant neoplasm is an issue among childhood cancer survivors. Some of these tumors are caused by genetics, and some are caused by the treatment, but we didn’t know exactly was driving the risk,” says first author Seth Rotz, MD, a pediatric hematologist/oncologist at Cleveland Clinic. “What is it about being a childhood cancer survivor?” was a particularly vexing question for Dr. Rotz, who leads the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Survivorship Program.
Additionally, the study identified three treatment exposures— high-dose radiation, a class of chemotherapy known as alkylating agent exposure, and bleomycin—contributing to this subsequent malignancy, raising important considerations for care-making decisions.