Poor air quality days significantly increase the risk of hospitalizations for respiratory issues in young survivors of cancer, according to a study conducted by researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah (U of U) and published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Poor air quality days significantly increase the risk of hospitalizations for respiratory issues in young survivors of cancer, according to a study conducted by researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah (U of U) and published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Better treatments—developed through research—have resulted in a dramatic increase in the rates of childhood cancer survival; today, nearly 80 percent of children diagnosed with cancer will survive their disease. However, these survivors may experience long-term detrimental health issues related to their cancer treatment. In this project, HCI researchers sought to better understand what a polluted environment means for the health of cancer survivors who may already be at a higher risk for illness because of the type of cancer treatment they received. The team examined the medical records of nearly 4,000 childhood, adolescent, and young adult cancer survivors diagnosed or treated at Primary Children’s Hospital between 1986 and 2012. They tracked when and how often those survivors required emergency room treatment or were admitted to a hospital in Utah due to respiratory illness. The study was divided into three groups: those who received chemotherapy as part of their cancer treatment, those who didn’t receive chemotherapy, and a cancer-free group. The researchers found the risk for respiratory hospitalization was significantly higher among the survivors who received chemotherapy compared to the cancer-free group.
HCI’s researchers were specifically looking at what happened to survivors on unhealthy air days. The study found the risk for hospitalizations among cancer survivors was significant when air pollution (PM2.5) was below the standard for sensitive groups (35.4 µg/m3), implying that levels below that protective standard may still contribute to respiratory problems for cancer survivors. Of the 3,819 survivors in the study, 185 had a total of 335 respiratory events documented in their medical record. 91 percent of hospitalizations and 75 percent of emergency room visits took place along the Wasatch Front counties of Salt Lake, Davis, Utah and Weber.
Read more at Huntsman Cancer Institute
Image: Huntsman Cancer Institute Researchers Anne Kirchhoff, PhD and Judy Ou, PhD (Credit: Huntsman Cancer Institute)
