PEDIATRICS Vol. 65 No. 6 June 1980, pp. 1160
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LEUKEMIA AND RADIATION

Robert W. Miller MD1

1 National Cancer Institute-NIH, Bethesda, Maryland

A report of leukemia incidence in a cohort of atomic-bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1950-1971, has revealed that the larger the exposure dose and the younger the age at exposure, the greater was the rate of leukemia and the shorter the interval to occurrence (Ichimaru M, Ishimaur T, Belsky JL: J Radiat Res 19:262-282, 1978). Chronic granulocytic leukemia passed its peak occurrence in all age groups within ten years of exposure, the peak being greater among persons who were under 15 years of age at the time of the bomb (ATB). The excess was exhausted by the 15th year after exposure among them and among the next older cohort (15 to 29 years ATB).

Acute leukemia peaked soonest among persons exposed under 15 years of age ATB, and progressively later in successive age groups. Each peak was of similar amplitude, but the decline in rates was slower as age ATB increased. After childhood exposure, the excess was no longer discernible 15 years after the bomb, but persisted among older groups more than 25 years after exposure, in proportion to their age at the time of the bomb.

The vast majority of the excess involved nonlymphocytic leukemia, except among persons exposed before 20 years of age (12 cases), as compared with persons above this age (four cases). Thus, age is very much related to susceptibility and the type of leukemia that is induced by radiation exposure.