Endocrine sequelae of cancer and cancer treatments
Authors: Charles J. Stava, MHSA, Camilo Jimenez, M .D. and Rena Vassilopoulou-Sellin, M.D.
Published: Journal of Cancer Survivorship, 1(4): 261-274, 2007.
Exposure to cancer and its treatments, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy, may result in late adverse effects including endocrine dysfunction. Endocrine disorders are the most commonly reported long-term complications of cancer treatment, especially by adult survivors of childhood cancers. This review will explore the endocrinologic adverse effects from non-endocrine cancer therapies. Methods Searches including various Internet-based medical
search engines such as PubMed, Medline Plus, and Google Scholar were conducted for published articles. Endocrine disorders including hypothalamus dysfunction, hypopituitarism, syndrome of inappropriate anti-diuretic hormone secretion, diabetes insipidus, growth hormone disorders, hyperprolactinemia, gonadotropin deficiency, serum thyroid hormone-binding protein abnormalities, hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, hypomagnesium, hypocalcemia, hyperparathyroidism, hyperparathyroidism, adrenal dysfunction, gonadal dysfunction, hypertriglyceridemia, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes mellitus, and glycosuria were identified and their association with cancer therapies were outlined. Published literature have highlighted the association of cancer therapies, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy, with endocrine dysfunction. Some of the dysfunctions were more often experienced than others. Especially in patients treated with radiotherapy some endocrinologic disorders were progressive in nature.