Solid tumor risks after high doses of ionizing radiation.

ABSTRACT: There is increasing concern regarding radiation-related second-cancer risks in long-term radiotherapy survivors and a corresponding need to be able to predict cancer risks at high radiation doses. Although cancer risks at moderately low radiation doses are reasonably understood from atomic bomb survivor studies, there is much more uncertainty at the high doses used in radiotherapy. It has generally been assumed that cancer induction decreases rapidly at high doses due to cell killing. However, recent studies of radiation-induced second cancers in the lung and breast, covering a very wide range of doses, contradict this assumption. A likely resolution of this disagreement comes from considering cellular repopulation during and after radiation exposure. Such repopulation tends to counteract

SUBMITTER: Sachs RK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1199000 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature