Irradiation and second cancers. The thyroid as a case in point

The thyroid gland is highly sensitive to radiation during childhood: the risk of thyroid tumours is increased for mean doses as low as 100 mGy and for higher doses, the risk increases linearly with the dose. Excess relative risk is important, being 7.7 for 1 Gy delivered to the thyroid gland during childhood. The risk of thyroid tumours is modified by several factors: a) age at exposure: in childhood, the risk decreases with increasing age at exposure and is not significant after 20 years; b) gender: females are two times more likely than males to develop thyroid tumours; c) genetic predisposition due to a defect in DNA repair mechanisms, and dietary and hormonal factors may modify the risk; d) the influence of fractionation and dose rate is not well established. Radioiodine 131 (131I) used for medical purposes has almost no tumourigenic effect on the adult thyroid gland. The consequences of the Chernobyl accident have clearly shown that the risk of thyroid cancer after exposure to 131I in childhood is important, and that such exposure should be prevented by potassium iodine prophylaxis. RET/PTC rearrangements are found in 60-80 % of papillary carcinomas and in 45 % of adenomas occurring after radiation exposure. They are found in 5-15 % of papillary carcinoma and in no follicular adenomas that occurred in the absence of radiation exposure. (C) Academie des sciences/Elsevier, Paris.