Additional information on recommended guidelines for cancer screening:

• A-T and Cancer Risk
• Cancer in A-T Carriers

People with A-T have an increased incidence (at least a 25% lifetime risk) of cancers, particularly lymphomas and leukemia, but other cancers can occur. There is currently no way to predict which individuals will develop cancer. Routine screening blood tests for leukemia and lymphoma are generally not considered helpful because there is no clear advantage in outcome from an early diagnosis. It is worthwhile, however, to consider cancer as a diagnostic possibility whenever possible symptoms of cancer arise.

Treatment should avoid the use of radiation therapy, and chemotherapy drugs that work in a way that is similar to radiation therapy, as these are particularly toxic for people with A-T. The special problems of managing cancer are sufficiently complicated that treatment should be managed only in academic oncology centers after consulting with physicians who have specific expertise in A-T.

When A-T patients develop cancer, their local oncologists are encouraged to contact:

Richa Sharma, MD at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital at Richa.Sharma@stjude.org

Howard Lederman, MD, PhD, Director of the A-T Clinical Center at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center at 410-955-5883 or hlederm1@jhmi.edu.