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After medical radiation, cancer risk persists for decades

Even when you’re old, you’re not out of the woods……

Risk for Thyroid Cancer Persists Decades After Childhood Radiation, Medscape Today, January 3, 2011 — People who received radiation for an enlarged thymus when they were babies have an increased risk of developing thyroid cancer that lasts throughout their lives, according to a new study published in the December issue of Radiation Research.

The study results might provide some insight as to why the rates of thyroid cancer continue to rise, lead author Jacob Adams, MD, from the University of Rochester in New York, told Medscape Medical News. “They also mean that the risk for thyroid cancer is going to be life long. We can’t ignore that fact.”

The finding comes from an update of a longitudinal study of individuals who were irradiated for thymic enlargement with lower doses of radiation (median, 0.95 Gy; mean, 1.29 Gy) between 1926 and 1957 and who were followed until 1987 for the occurrence of cancer………

“This was the longest longitudinal follow-up of any cohort exposed to chest radiotherapy. The results clearly show that the risk of thyroid cancer remains for a very long time,” Dr. Adams said. “They also suggest that young children undergoing multiple [computed tomography] scans that expose the thyroid to radiation are at increased risk for thyroid cancer well into adulthood. Even as we cut radiation doses, we can’t assume that we’re going to eliminate cancer risk, in this case thyroid cancer risk. We’re going to decrease it, but we’re probably never going to eliminate it.”

Even when you’re old, you’re not out of the woods……

Risk for Thyroid Cancer Persists Decades After Childhood Radiation

January 4, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, health