Title of the paper

Dr. Eric Grant, Associate Chief of Research (left), explaining paper

On May 17, 2017, at Hiroshima RERF, a press conference was held to announce the publication of a paper titled “Solid cancer incidence among the Life Span Study of A-bomb survivors: 1958-2009,” authored by Dr. Eric J. Grant, Associate Chief of Research, in collaboration with other RERF scientists and scientists in the USA. Journalists in Nagasaki participated from Nagasaki RERF by teleconferencing.

Dr. Grant explained that the study revealed the risk of solid cancers be elevated in the survivor population even more than 60 years after radiation exposure, supporting the results of previous papers in this long-term study. The published paper also adjusted for the carcinogenic effects of smoking－a first for a major RERF report. While smoking is a strong carcinogen, its effects were uniformly distributed throughout the survivors’ entire dose range. Therefore, when smoking effects were removed from the analysis, the radiation risk estimates were nearly identical to those before the smoking effects were removed. It turns out that smoking increased cancer risk by itself, and did not change the risk of cancer from radiation.

This paper was published in Radiation Research, the official journal of the Radiation Research Society. To access the summary explanation of the paper, please click the following URL.
 

The full text of the manuscript is available for free download at:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1667/RR14492.1