A new study confirms a substantially increased risk of thyroid cancer
among people exposed to radiation during childhood and adolescence after
the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident.
A total of 13,127 of the 32,385 individuals living in the most
contaminated area of the Ukraine during the nuclear plant meltdown and
who were under 18 at the time were screened between 1998 and 2000, Dr.
Geoffrey R. Howe of Columbia University in New York and colleagues
report. They found that 45 cases of thyroid cancer occurred compared
with 11.2 cases that would have been expected in the absence of
radiation exposure. Plus, the higher the dosage of radioactive iodine,
the greater the thyroid cancer risk.
The study is the first to measure the risk of thyroid cancer associated
with specific radiation dosage, Howe and his team note in the Journal of
the National Cancer Institute. Radioactive iodine and cesium were the
main components of the Chernobyl fallout. Because radioactive iodine is
used frequently in medicine -- and is also likely to be a chief
contaminant released in any future nuclear emergency -- understanding
the risk associated with exposure is a public health concern, as well as
of scientific interest, the researchers point out.
A spike in thyroid cancer cases had already been observed among Ukraine
residents who were children and adolescents when the Chernobyl accident
occurred. However, the researchers note, increased rates of screening
for thyroid cancer and a low dietary iodine intake, which increases the
uptake of radioactive iodine by the thyroid gland, "almost certainly"
were factors in this increase.
To investigate the specific risk associated with radiation exposure, the
researchers estimated each persons radiation exposure using
measurements made after the accident and from interviews.
They found a "strong" relationship between radiation exposure and
thyroid cancer risk. While there was a tendency for risk to be greater
among people exposed at younger ages, as well as among females, neither
was statistically significant.
"We estimate that 75 percent of the thyroid cancer cases would have been
avoided in the absence of radiation," the researchers conclude. "This
estimate demonstrates a substantial contribution of radioactive iodines
to the excess of thyroid cancer that followed the Chernobyl accident."
(Com informações do Journal of the National Cancer Institute,
Planet Ark, 07/07/2006)