Study: Holocaust Survivors Evidence Higher Cancer Rates

7th May 1964: Survivors of Auschwitz concentration camp display the camp markings still on
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The Times of Israel reports: The extreme trauma experienced by Holocaust survivors has severe implications on their health even tens of years later, with an Israeli study finding that they were far more likely to get certain forms of cancer.

The study, which was published earlier this month by the American Cancer Society’s Cancer journal, examined 152,622 Holocaust survivors over the course of 45 years in Israel. It compared cancer rates among those who were entitled to compensation for their experiences versus those who were not, as well as those who were from countries ruled by the Nazis and those who were not.

 Generally those who were entitled to compensation suffered the worst persecution under the Nazis, surviving death camps, concentration camps and ghettos. The Ramat Gan Sheba Medical Center’s Siegal Sadetzki, who led the the research team, said she carried out the study in order to determine if conditions experienced by Holocaust survivors — such as lack of food, overcrowding, disease and immense stress — impacted their chances of developing cancer.

Read more here.

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