[pieceofthepuzzle]

Recurrent cancers in the same person are likely due to one of three factors:

1) That person has a mutation in a tumor suppressor gene, or a gene that is required for DNA repair or immune surveillance;
2) The radiation therapy or chemotherapy used to treat the previous cancer caused DNA mutations that promoted the secondary cancers;
3) Specific exposures that contributed to the first cancer contributed to the subsequent cancer (e.g. smoking, radon, and other carcinogens etc..).

[CharlotteVRWC]

Dittos

[JRandomFreeper]

And just how many cancers have you survived? Or are you just talking what you read on the internet?

/johnny

[Kickass Conservative]

I've been treated for CCL, Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia for nearly Ten Years. After six months of Chemotherapy that ended late last Year (third times a charm), my Oncologist announced that I'm in Remission. That was the good news.

He then told me that they discovered that I now had a second type of Leukemia called MDS, Myelodysplastic Syndrome. That was the bad news.

For know, they are just monitoring it. Could have been there all the time and never caught in the numerous Bone Marrow Biopsy's or it could have been caused by the Chemotherapy Drugs I have been given to battle the CLL. Best case it is treatable, worst case it turns in Acute Leukemia. Taking it a day at a time. Some other issues related to the Blood Cancer have recently popped up because of my suppressed Immune System. When half the people working at the Blood Test Lab know your name, you know you've arrived. Watched my Late B-I-L deal with Esophageal Cancer, and it was a heinous five years for him. You never know when Cancer will touch your Life or the lives of your Family. It is beyond insidious, but we live in an amazing age that gives many who would never have had a chance even a decade or two ago real hope. I am one of those people.

[the OlLine Rebel]

This is not about recurrent, but different cancers.