Adolescent, Young Adult Cancer Survivors Have Higher Risk for Subsequent Primary Neoplasm

MONDAY, April 13, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Survivors of nearly all types of adolescent and young adult cancer have an increased risk for developing a subsequent primary neoplasm, according to a study published online April 13 in CMAJ, the journal of the Canadian Medical Association.Arafat Ul Alam, Ph.D., from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, and colleagues quantified the risk for subsequent primary neoplasms among survivors of cancer in adolescence and young adulthood. The analysis included 24,459 participants (aged 15 to 39 years) in the Alberta Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Survivor Study who had a neoplasm first diagnosed between 1983 and 2017.The researchers found that 1,442 survivors (5.9 percent) had subsequent primary neoplasms, 1,129 of which occurred after five-year survival. The risk for subsequent primary neoplasm was similar both overall and after five-year survival (standardized incidence ratio [SIR], 2.2 versus 2.0; absolute excess risk, 31.7 versus 35.7 per 10,000 person-years). Breast, digestive, hematopoietic, and respiratory cancers were the most common subsequent primary neoplasms. The 30-year cumulative incidence of a subsequent primary neoplasm after five-year survival was 17.7 percent, with the highest incidence seen in survivors of cancers of the oral cavity, lip, or pharynx (28.9 percent), breast cancer (27.3 percent), colon cancer (23.5 percent), and Hodgkin lymphoma (22.7 percent)."Our findings suggest that earlier cancer surveillance in this population may be warranted, which agrees with numerous survivorship guidelines that recommend earlier breast and colorectal cancer surveillance for at-risk cancer survivors," the authors write.Abstract/Full Text.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Adolescent, Young Adult Cancer Survivors Have Higher Risk for Subsequent Primary Neoplasm

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