Low Doses of Radiation To The Head

[Guest guest]

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Low doses of radiation therapy to the head, for

brain tumors or some other cancers, might make it slightly harder for girls to

have babies when they get older, a new study shows.

Doctors already knew that higher doses of radiation for these conditions can

interfere with a woman's fertility, because it can destroy cells in the brain

that control how her ovaries produce eggs, said Dr. Green, a cancer

doctor at the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

" It was not known that more modest doses can possibly have an effect on

fertility, " Green, who was a co-author on the study, told Reuters Health.

Most of the girls in the study, about 6 out of 10, had either leukemia or a

brain tumor. Others had cancers of the lymph nodes, bone, or muscles. None of

the girls had radiation of their ovaries, which might have affected their

fertility.

Instead, Green and his colleagues wanted to know what happens to the fertility

of girls who have radiation that reaches two glands next to the brain, the

pituitary and the hypothalamus. Read more.....

http://www.caring4cancer.com/go/cancer/news?NewsItemId=20110309elin004.xml

FYI,

Lottie Duthu