Study notes higher thyroid cancer rate from Chornobyl

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - A new study confirms a substantially increased risk of thyroid cancer among people exposed to radiation during childhood and adolescence after the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear accident, as reported by Reuters on July 7, citing a study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The study by Dr. Geoffrey R. Howe of Columbia University in New York, which took place between 1998 and 2000, screened over 13,000 of the 32,000 individuals living in the most contaminated area of Ukraine during the nuclear power plant meltdown and who were under the age of 18 at the time of the accident. The report found that 45 cases of thyroid cancer occurred compared to 11.2 cases that would have been expected in the absence of radiation exposure.

According to the report by Dr. Howe and his team, this was the first study to measure the risk of thyroid cancer associated with specific radiation dosage. The researchers noted that increased rates of screening for thyroid cancer and a low dietary iodine intake, which increases the intake of radioactive iodine by the thyroid gland, "almost certainly" were factors in this increase.

"We estimate that 75 percent of the thyroid cancer cases would have been avoided in the absence of radiation," the researchers concluded. "This estimate demonstrates a substantial contribution of radioactive iodine to the excess of thyroid cancer that followed the Chornobyl accident."

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, July 23, 2006, No. 30, Vol. LXXIV

| Home Page |