Relationship of Leukemia Risk to Radiation Dose Following Cancer of the Uterine Corpus

Abstract

The leukemia risk associated with partial-body radiotherapy for uterine corpus cancer was small; about 14 excess leukemia cases were due to radiation per 10,000 women followed for 10 years. Women aged 65 years or older had a radiation risk comparable with that found in younger women. The relationship of leukemia risk to radiation dose was found to be complex due to the competing processes of cell killing, transformation, and repair. At very high doses delivered at high rates, destruction of cells likely dominates, and the risk per unit dose is low. In the low dose range, where dose was protracted and delivered at relatively low dose rates, the leukemia risk appears lower than that projected from risk estimates derived from the instantaneous whole-body exposures of atomic bomb survivors.