Leukemia in Children Exposed to Ionizing Radiation

Abstract

DURING the past twenty years, a number of epidemiologic studies have shown that the rate of leukemia in human populations exposed to ionizing radiation is higher than that in unexposed populations. The groups used for study include the Japanese inhabitants in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the time of nuclear explosions,1 patients suffering from ankylosing spondylitis,2 children treated in infancy for enlargement of the thymus gland3 and American radiologists.4 The most recent study, by Stewart, Webb and Hewitt,5 observed that leukemic children have a history of more frequent prenatal exposure to x-rays than the control children and more frequent diagnostic radiographic . . .