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Cancer patients face a higher risk of painful skin condition & nbsp | & nbspPhoto Credit: & nbspThinkstock
New York: According to a new study, patients with cancer and those treated with chemotherapy may be at an increased risk of shingles by 40% compared to those without cancer. Shingles (herpes zoster) – marked by painful rashes and skin vesicles – is caused by the varicella zoster virus that causes chickenpox. The virus remains dormant in the body, but causes shingles if it reactivates later in life.
The study showed that patients with blood-related cancer had a risk of shingles more than three times that of people without cancer, Health Day said. The higher risk in patients with blood cancer was present two years before the diagnosis of cancer.
In addition, people with a solid tumor, including cancer of the lungs, bad, prostate or other organs, had a 30% higher risk of shingles than people without cancer, said senior researcher Jiahui Qian of the University of New South Wales in Australia saying.
However, this increased risk was largely badociated with chemotherapy treatment, rather than cancer.
"These results have important implications in light of recent advances in the development of shingles vaccines," added Kosuke Kawai of the University of Minnesota in the United States.
The development of new vaccines could help prevent shingles in cancer patients and could be safe for people with weakened immune systems, including those on chemotherapy, according to the study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
For the study, the team had about 240,000 cancer patients in Australia.
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