A new study has found that pediatric cancer survivors have a higher-than-normal risk for problems that predispose them to heart disease.

Researchers found that cardiovascular disease risk factors like high cholesterol, diabetes and high blood pressure are more common in adults who had cancer during childhood.

The study published in the journalCancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention extracted data from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, which included 8,599 cancer survivors and 2,936 of their siblings.
They found that cancer survivors were nearly twice as likely as their siblings to take medication for high blood pressure, 60 percent more likely to take cholesterol medication and 70 percent more likely to have diabetes.

Researchers say they suspect exposure to radiation during treatments may be to blame.

In addition, survivors were younger than average when they developed these conditions.

"These risk factors are manifesting at about age 32, which is much younger than a non-cancer survivor would exhibit signs of cardiovascular risk factors," said lead researcher Dr Lillian Meacham. "Some have suggested that when you are a cancer survivor there are parts of you that wear out early, so we need to be vigilant about our follow-up of these patients in order to find these late effects early and intervene."