Children exposed to head and neck radiation, either from diagnostic CT or radiation therapy, show an increased risk of thyroid cancer for the next 58 years, according to a study published in Radiation Research.
The study may be the longest ever of any group of children exposed to radiation, and the results may provide insight into why thyroid cancer rates keep rising along with exposure to CT scans, according to lead author Jacob Adams, MD, an associate professor in the department of community and preventive medicine at the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY (Radiation Research, December 2010, Vol. 174:6a, pp. 753-762).
Adams and colleagues indirectly examined the future risks of patients by assessing the rates of thyroid cancer in a group that was treated with low-dose chest radiation therapy in Rochester, NY, between 1953 and 1987. The patients had been treated during infancy for enlarged thyroid, a condition that was believed at the time to be a health problem. None of the radiation administered was for cancer.
Resurveying the population between 2004 and 2008, the researchers compared the health of the group to their siblings who had not received radiation. Thyroid cancer occurred in 50 of the 1,303 irradiated patients, compared with only 13 of the 1,768 siblings.
The association between radiation and thyroid cancer remained strong even after researchers accounted for other factors that could contribute to thyroid cancer risk. The study shows that in children, the risk of cancer due to radiation exposure continues for a median of 57.5 years, the authors concluded.
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