Commentary and Review Series 1-96
A simple reductionist model for cancer risk in atom bomb survivors
Mendelsohn ML- In: Modeling of Biological Effects and Risks of Radiation Exposure (NIRS Symposium Series No. 26). Ed by Inaba J, Kobayashi S. Chiba, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, 1995. pp 185-92
- Hoshasen Seibutsu Kenkyu [Radiat Biol Res Commun] 33(1):12-24,1998 (In Japanese)
Summary
1) In data from the atom bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the roughly linear- quadratic radiation dose responses for chromosome aberration and leukemia correspond closely to each other, as do the linear dose responses for gene mutation and solid cancer incidence.
2) In view of the increasing evidence for multiple oncogene and suppressor gene changes in human cancer, as well as the evidence that human cancer rate is often proportional to age to the power of 6 or so, it is postulated that the radiation has contributed one and only one oncogenic mutational event to the radiation induced cancers.
3) The radiation induced cancers should therefore display a cancer rate versus age relationship that has a power of n-1, where n is the power for the corresponding background cancers.
4) It is shown that this is precisely what is happening in the collective solid cancer incidence of the atom bomb survivors.
1) In data from the atom bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the roughly linear- quadratic radiation dose responses for chromosome aberration and leukemia correspond closely to each other, as do the linear dose responses for gene mutation and solid cancer incidence.
2) In view of the increasing evidence for multiple oncogene and suppressor gene changes in human cancer, as well as the evidence that human cancer rate is often proportional to age to the power of 6 or so, it is postulated that the radiation has contributed one and only one oncogenic mutational event to the radiation induced cancers.
3) The radiation induced cancers should therefore display a cancer rate versus age relationship that has a power of n-1, where n is the power for the corresponding background cancers.
4) It is shown that this is precisely what is happening in the collective solid cancer incidence of the atom bomb survivors.