In most cases, cancer risks estimated by the effective-dose method may overestimate the true risks by one order of magnitude, yet in other cases even may underestimate it. The proposed method using organ-specific risk factors may be more suitable for treatment planning.

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The clinically and histologically observed prevention of the progression of adjuvant arthritis after LD-RT given during the peak of the acute inflammatory response and the reduction of cartilage and bone destruction in the chronic phase appears to be related to the modulation of iNOS activity by low X-ray doses.

Between 1996 and 2004, a total of 708 patients were enrolled in the acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) '96 and '02 studies of the East German Study Group (OSHO). Of these, 138 patients (19.5%) had unfavourable cytogenetics defined as complex karyotype, del (5q)/-5, del (7q)/-7, abn (3q26) and abn (11q23). In all, 77 (56%) achieved complete remission 1 (CR1) after induction chemotherapy and were eligible for haematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). HCT was performed after a median of two cycles of consolidation chemotherapy (CT) in the AML '96 and one cycle in the AML '02 study (P ¼ 0.03). After a median follow-up of 19 months, overall survival (OS) at two years was significantly better in the donor group (52 ± 9%) versus the no-donor group (24±8%; P ¼ 0.005). Differences in outcomes were mainly because of a lower relapse incidence in patients after HCT (39±11%) compared with a higher relapse incidence in patients undergoing CT (77 ± 10%; P ¼ 0.0005). Treatment-related mortality was low and not statistically significantly different between the two treatment groups (15 ± 7 and 5 ± 5% for HCT and chemotherapy, respectively; P ¼ 0.49).We conclude that early HCT from related or unrelated donors led to significantly better OS and leukaemia-free survival compared with chemotherapy in patients with unfavourable karyotype.