Does radiotherapy to the head, neck or upper thorax for childhood cancer increase the risk of later thyroid cancer?
Mike M Hawkins
Correspondence Centre for Childhood Cancer Survivor Studies, The Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, The Public Health Building, The University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
Email m.m.hawkins@bham.ac.uk
This article has no abstract so we have provided the first paragraph of the full text.
A pooled analysis of seven of the most informative etiological studies available concerning thyroid cancer after exposure to external radiation provided several empirical insights.1 For example, the thyroid gland in children is the only tissue with convincing evidence of an excess risk at exposures as low as 0.1 Gy. For those exposed before 15 years of age, linearity best describes the dose–response relationship at lower doses, even down to 0.1 Gy. In contrast, at higher doses (>10 Gy) there is evidence of a decrease or leveling in risk—probably as a result of cell killing. The excess relative risk is greater for females than males. There is evidence that the excess relative risk begins to decline about 30 years after exposure, but is still elevated at 40 years.
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