Cancer risk among children of atomic bomb survivors. A review of RERF epidemiologic studies. Radiation Effects Research Foundation

Abstract

This article summarizes recent epidemiologic studies of cancer risk among the children of atomic bomb survivors conducted at the Radiation Effects Research Foundation. These children include two groups: (1) the in utero-exposed children (ie, those born to mothers who had been pregnant at the time of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) and (2) the F1 population, which was conceived after the atomic-bombings and born to parents of whom one or both were atomic bomb survivors. Although from 1950 to 1984 only 18 cancer cases were identified among the in utero sample, cancer risk did appear to significantly increase as maternal uterine dose increased. However, since the observed cases are too few in number to allow a site-specific review, the increased cancer risk cannot be definitively attributed to atomic bomb radiation, as yet. For those members of the F1 population who were less than 20 years old between 1946 and 1982, cancer risk did not appear to increase significantly as parental gonadal dose increased. Follow-up of this population will continue to determine if the patterns of adult-onset cancer are altered.