Autopsy study of leukemia in atomic bomb survivors, Hiroshima-Nagasaki, 1949–1969

Abstract

Four hundred and seventy-four leukemia autopsies collected from 1949 to the end of 1969 at the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were studied in relation to dose of radiation at the time of bombing (ATB) using tentative 1965 dose estimates. The leukemia rate was based on autopsy cases belonging to the fixed Life Span Study (LSS) sample and was examined by dose for the period October 1950 to December 1969. There were 61 leukemia cases in 3,959 autopsy cases in this sample. The rate increased by dose, especially in those exposed to more than 100 rads for both 1950–1960 and 1961–1969, even though the autopsy rates differed between these two periods. The pathologic findings were compared by dose for 361 leukemia cases who were born before the bomb including the 61 patients in the LSS sample. Pathologically, no individual leukemia autopsy could be differentiated and designated as being radiation-induced in this study. No case of chronic lymphocytic leukemia was detected among cases receiving 1 rad or more. No statistically significant difference related to radiation dose was found in acute leukemia and chronic granulocytic leukemia for various pathologic changes, except for the less intense infiltration of leukemic cells in the lungs of chronic granulocytic leukemia patients.