Cancer victim: Chemotherapy gave her acute leukemia

I was treated with chemotherapy for breast cancer in 2006.

I now have acute leukemia with chromosomal markings known to be consistent with leukemia resulting from chemotherapy for breast cancer. It is likely therefore that, indeed, the chemotherapy I was given for breast cancer played a causative role in the later occurrence and diagnosis of acute leukemia.

Until reading about leukemia after my diagnosis, I was unaware of the possibility that chemotherapy for breast cancer might cause leukemia. There was no mention of it in any of the extensive reading I did in connection with my decision to undergo chemotherapy.

I have now become aware that cancer patients treated with certain cancer-fighting drugs sometimes develop leukemia. Those drugs are known as alkylating agents.

It is my hope that by writing this letter to the editor, I can help to educate other women regarding the possibility that chemotherapy for breast cancer might result in later development of leukemia.

Maria LaBarbera

Naples