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Children exposed to atomic blasts were more likely to develop RET/PTC rearrangements
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Researchers in Japan have found that children exposed to atomic bombs in 1945 were more likely to develop papillary thyroid cancer as adults because of rearrangements to their chromosomes.
The researchers working in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Saitama published results that found the younger a child was at exposure to the radiation, the more likely he or she was to develop RET/PTC rearrangements.
The researchers enrolled 50 survivors of the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki who had been exposed to atomic radiation and 21 survivors who had not been exposed. All patients had been diagnosed with adult-onset papillary thyroid cancer.
The researchers found that RET/PTC rearrangements were more frequent in those patients exposed to more radiation (P=.002). Exposed patients with BRAFV600E mutations evidenced a lower radiation dose (P=.0002) and longer time since exposure (P=.0003), compared with those patients without BRAFV600E mutation. Those patients with BRAFV600E mutations were also older at time of diagnosis (P=.0002).
“That means that a younger person living close to the bombing site would be more likely to have adult-onset thyroid cancer having RET/PTC rearrangements,” Kiyohiro Hamatani, PhD, one of the study’s authors, said in a press release. “This is the first time that’s been shown.”
Patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma and RET/PTC rearrangements also developed the cancer earlier than those patients with the BRAFV600E mutation (P=.03), according to the researchers.
The researchers added that these results were similar to those found in children exposed to the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
Cancer Res. 2008;68:7176-7182.