The Ukrainian-American Study of Leukemia and Related Disorders among Chornobyl Cleanup Workers from Ukraine: III. Radiation Risks

Abstract

Leukemia is one of the cancers most susceptible to induction by ionizing radiation, but the effects of lower doses delivered over time have not been adequately quantified. Following the Chornobyl (Chernobyl) accident in Ukraine in April 1986, several hundred thousand workers who were involved in cleaning up the site and its surroundings received fractionated exposure, primarily from external gamma radiation. To increase our understanding of the role of protracted low-dose radiation exposure in the etiology of leukemia, we conducted a nested case-control study of leukemia in a cohort of cleanup workers identified from the Chornobyl State Registry of Ukraine. The analysis is based on 71 cases of histologically confirmed leukemia diagnosed in 1986-2000 and 501 age-and residence-matched controls selected from the same cohort. Study subjects or their proxies were interviewed about their cleanup activities and other relevant factors. Individual bone marrow radiation doses were estimated by the RADRUE dose reconstruction method (mean dose=76.4 (SD=213.4) milligray (mGy)). We used conditional logistic regression to estimate leukemia risks. The excess relative risk of total leukemia was 3.44 per Gy (95% confidence interval 0.47-9.78, p<0.01). The dose-response was linear and did not significantly differ by calendar period of first work in the 30-km Chornobyl zone, duration or type of work. We found a similar dose-response relationship for chronic and non-chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Membrane transport and apoptosis-related proteins in radiation-associated acute myeloid leukemia following the Chornobyl accident

“…Chornobyl accident led to the release of tremendous amount of radioactivity into the environment and caused low-dose external and internal exposure of huge population. The US-Ukrainian case-control retrospective epidemiological study found a significant increase in leukemia with excess relative risk of 3.42 per Gy in a cohort of 110,000 Ukrainian Chornobyl clean-up workers (Romanenko et al 2008). This data support previous estimates of Ivanov et al (1997), that up to 30% of leukemia cases developed in clean-up workers might be attributable to radiation exposure.…”

Epidemiology of Leukemia and Multiple Myeloma in Golestan, Iran

“…Age and race are considered as risk factors for multiple myeloma. Exposure to radiation and occupational exposures to high levels of benzene or formaldehyde are considered as risk factors for both multiple myeloma and leukemia (Romanenko et al, 2008;Yiin et al, 2009;Rhomberg et al, 2011).…”

Increased Risk of Leukemia After Radioactive Iodine Therapy in Patients with Thyroid Cancer: A Nationwide, Population-Based Study in Korea

“…Many studies regarding atomic bomb incidents demonstrated that the risk of leukemia was significantly increased in survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings (14,15). Furthermore, cleanup workers exposed to low-dose radiation in Chernobyl were also at risk for leukemia, and the relationship between radiation dose and leukemia was linear (16). However, the effects of medical radiation such as RAIT on hematopoietic malignancy have not been well studied.…”