TY - JOUR
T1 - Thyroid cancer among persons given x-ray treatment in infancy for an enlarged Thymus Gland
AU - Shore, Roy E.
AU - Hildreth, Nancy
AU - Dvoretsky, Philip
AU - Andresen, Elena
AU - Moseson, Miriam
AU - Pasternack, Bernard
N1 - Funding Information:
Supported by National Cancer Institute grant CA-19764 to the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine, and by US Public Health Service center program grants ES-00260 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and CA-13343 from the National Cancer Institute to the Institute of Environmental Medicine, New York University Medical Center.
PY - 1993/5/15
Y1 - 1993/5/15
N2 - A cohort of 2,657 infants in Rochester, New York, who were given x-ray treatment for a purported enlarged thymus gland, along with 4,833 siblings, have been followed by mail surveys through about 1986, which represents an average of 37 years of follow-up, to determine their incidence of thyroid cancer. Estimated thyroid doses ranged from 0.03 to >10 Gy, with 62% receiving <0.5 Gy. There were 37 pathologically diagnosed thyroid cancers in the irradiated group and five in the sibling controls. The dose-response relation was essentially linear, with no evidence of an additional dose-squared component. The estimated relative risk at 1 Gy was 10 (90% confidence interval 5-23). Thyroid cancer rates were elevated even at low doses; i.e., a dose-response analysis over the range of 0-0.3 Gy showed a significant positive slope. The risk ratio was declining over time but was still highly elevated to at least 45 years after irradiation. An examination of potential risk factors showed that older age at first childbirth was significantly associated with thyroid cancer risk. An evaluation of interactions between possible risk factors and radiation suggested that Jewish subjects and women with older ages at menarche or at first childbirth were at greater risk for radiogenic thyroid cancer.
AB - A cohort of 2,657 infants in Rochester, New York, who were given x-ray treatment for a purported enlarged thymus gland, along with 4,833 siblings, have been followed by mail surveys through about 1986, which represents an average of 37 years of follow-up, to determine their incidence of thyroid cancer. Estimated thyroid doses ranged from 0.03 to >10 Gy, with 62% receiving <0.5 Gy. There were 37 pathologically diagnosed thyroid cancers in the irradiated group and five in the sibling controls. The dose-response relation was essentially linear, with no evidence of an additional dose-squared component. The estimated relative risk at 1 Gy was 10 (90% confidence interval 5-23). Thyroid cancer rates were elevated even at low doses; i.e., a dose-response analysis over the range of 0-0.3 Gy showed a significant positive slope. The risk ratio was declining over time but was still highly elevated to at least 45 years after irradiation. An examination of potential risk factors showed that older age at first childbirth was significantly associated with thyroid cancer risk. An evaluation of interactions between possible risk factors and radiation suggested that Jewish subjects and women with older ages at menarche or at first childbirth were at greater risk for radiogenic thyroid cancer.
KW - Dose-response relationship, radiation
KW - Neoplasms, radiation-induced
KW - Radiation, ionizing
KW - Thyroid neoplasms
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U2 - 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a116610
DO - 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a116610
M3 - Article
C2 - 8317436
AN - SCOPUS:0027213254
SN - 0002-9262
VL - 137
SP - 1068
EP - 1080
JO - American journal of epidemiology
JF - American journal of epidemiology
IS - 10
ER -