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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 Preston and his team found that 336 men and 407 women had developed cancer during the study period, with diagnosis rates increasing dramatically after the age of 40. Cancers of the digestive system were most common, accounting for 70 percent of male and 30 percent of female malignancies. Tumors of the breast and reproductive system accounted for 48 percent of malignancies in women.
Among those who developed cancer, the researchers determined that nine of the survivor patients developed their disease as a result of radiation exposure while in the womb, compared with 87 whose illness was linked to childhood exposure.
Preston and his colleagues concluded that early childhood atomic bomb exposure was linked to a greater risk for adult cancers than exposure in the womb.
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"This is a subject of much interest, and these studies are ongoing," Preston said. "And in another five or six years the number of cancer cases among survivors will probably double, because these people are relatively young -- in their 50s -- and cancer rates go up in general with age. And I think -- if the trends we found continue as expected -- that we will see that the risk differences between childhood and in utero exposure will grow wider."
Dr. Gerald Crabtree, a professor of pathology and developmental biology at Stanford University School of Medicine, said a number of factors might ultimately account for the lower exposure risk while in the womb.
"It's possible that in utero the developing embryo has a better DNA repair process," Crabtree said. "Or it could be that embryos are better at removing damaged cells altogether, because cell death is a normal part of the developmental process."
"Another possibility," he added, "would be that there's enough maternal wall to offer a small amount of shielding around the placenta -- though I would think this is less likely because this kind of radiation pretty much penetrates body tissue without a problem. So perhaps it could also be that cancerous tumors were not produced at the instant of the bomb explosion but later, and that the mother's placental barrier perhaps protected the unborn baby from exposure. But all this is all just theorizing because we don't really know."
More information
For more on radiation exposure, visit the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
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