Can someone with active cancer take growth hormone?

No. Somatropin labels list active cancer as a contraindication and say any earlier cancer should be inactive and treated first.

Does growth hormone cause cancer in children treated for short stature?

In the SAGhE study, children with growth failure and no other major disease showed no clear raised cancer risk.

What is the second tumor risk?

Childhood cancer survivors who had head or brain radiation and later took somatropin had more second tumors, most often meningiomas.

Do weekly growth hormone products carry the same warning?

Yes. The weekly Sogroya label has the same tumor warning in section 5.3 as the daily Norditropin label.

Growth Hormone and Cancer Risk: Labels and Data

Short answer: For most people the evidence does not show it, but the labels set limits. Somatropin labels say growth hormone can speed up an active cancer, so it is not used until cancer is inactive and treated. Childhood cancer survivors given head or brain radiation had more second tumors, mostly meningiomas. A European study of 23,984 people treated as children found no clear raised risk in those without other major disease.

What the labels say

Daily and weekly growth hormone labels, including Norditropin, Genotropin and Sogroya, list active cancer as a contraindication (section 4) and carry a tumor warning (section 5.3):

Active cancer: the Norditropin and Sogroya labels say there is a higher risk of the cancer progressing on somatropin. Any earlier cancer should be inactive, with treatment finished, before starting, and growth hormone is stopped if the cancer returns.
Second tumors: childhood cancer survivors who had radiation to the head or brain and later received somatropin had a higher risk of a second tumor. Brain tumors, mostly meningiomas, were the most common.
Adults: it is unknown whether growth hormone replacement is related to brain tumor recurrence. People whose growth hormone deficiency came from a brain tumor are monitored for regrowth.
Rare genetic causes of short stature that carry a higher cancer risk call for careful weighing and monitoring.
Existing moles are watched for growth or changes.

What a large study found

The SAGhE study (Swerdlow 2017) followed 23,984 people treated with recombinant growth hormone in childhood in eight European countries, comparing their cancer rates with national population figures.

Main findings of the SAGhE cancer study
Group or question	Finding
Whole group	Raised risks for several cancer sites, mostly second cancers in people given growth hormone after earlier cancer treatment
Growth failure without other major disease	No clear raised risk
People without earlier cancer	Only bone and bladder cancer incidence was significantly raised
Length of treatment or total dose	Not related to cancer risk
People with earlier cancer	Cancer death risk rose with higher daily dose

The authors wrote that the results do not generally support a cancer-causing effect, but that the dose trend after earlier cancer and the bone, bladder and Hodgkin lymphoma signals need more study. It was an observational study, so it cannot prove cause.

What these sources cover

The labels and the study cover prescribed somatropin and weekly long-acting growth hormone for diagnosed growth hormone deficiency and other approved uses. They do not cover research peptides sold to raise growth hormone, which have no FDA label. See growth hormone secretagogues and the evidence and IGF-1.

Questions for the prescriber

A past cancer, radiation to the head, a family cancer syndrome or a changing mole are all things the prescriber will want to know before and during treatment. Dose Track keeps each injection, dose and site in one log and can hold notes on skin changes between visits.

General education drawn from labels, public health agencies and published studies, not personal medical advice. Your prescriber, pharmacist and the label that came with your medicine are the final word. Questions for other users? Ask in the Dose Track community.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

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