Home > Encyclopedia of Cancer > Second Cancers

Definition

A second cancer is a malignancy that develops in someone who has survived an earlier cancer.

Description

Formally referred to as second primary neoplasms, second cancers are also described as late effects of the original disease or of the treatment used to cure it.

Blood-based malignancies usually occur within a few years of treatment. Solid tumors may not become evident until 20 years later. Most second cancers affect parts of the body that have been exposed to radiation and are near the site of the original tumor.

Demographics

Having once had cancer almost doubles an individual's risk of having cancer a...